Death is something we are all confronted with throughout our lives; it's one of the few things that can freeze time around you, halt your ambitions and plunge you into a state of deep remorse. We see many deaths up on the screen, but the vast majority of them carry no weight, no impact. The hundreds of faceless goons who die in our action films have lives, ambitions, dreams. Sadly, fiction never takes the time to explore the nature of death because it is a somber subject, and it is not a topic too many people are eager to seek out. Cinema, after all, is escapism, and being reminded of our mortality isn't really the escapism we seek.
But Manchester by the Sea handles loss beautifully, and is a stark character study in what remorse and grief can do to a person. Opening on a boat where Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is playing with his young nephew Patrick (Ben O'Brien as a lad, Lucas Hedges as a teen), the film starts with a rather light tone. Suddenly we cut to Lee as a janitor, moving from tenant to tenant dealing with different plumbing issues and the like, we see a man who seems a shell of his former self, empty and lost, willing to throw a punch at a random guy at a bar simply for looking at him wrong.
Events are set in motion when Lee's brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), passes away; while not an unexpected event (Joe is later revealed to have been diagnosed with a degenerative heart disease), it still halts Lee's life, forcing him to travel from a Boston suburb to Manchester, where his brother and nephew reside. There, he discovers that his brother has named him the guardian of Patrick, but Lee isn't necessarily ready to take on this responsibility. Much of the rest of the film details the process of dealing with the death, Patrick's way of coping (surrounding himself with friends and juggling two girlfriends who are unaware of each other is one way to keep your mind of your father's death), and the sadness of another tragedy that is revealed around halfway through the film.
Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan, whose past credits include You Can Count on Me and Margaret, is an incredibly skilled storyteller. Flashbacks are organically woven into the story that help illustrate the characters and explain their pain. We see Lee in various flashbacks when he was happily married to Randi (Michelle Williams), as well as Patrick's alcoholic mother Elise (Gretchen Mol). Nothing is ever stated obviously, and you are always aware of what the characters are feeling or thinking.
The film's tone is another strong point; although somber, it does contain flares of comedy layered into the sadness. Little moments like exchanges between Patrick and Lee, to sadly comic moments like the formality of signing paperwork for one's deceased relative. In one of the saddest moments of the movie, a gurney is having trouble collapsing fully to put a distraught person into an ambulance. This moment is the absolute nadir of this persons' life, yet life does not stop to forgive. And yet the drama comes through strongly, never feeling melodramatic. It would be so easy to for this film to feel like a Hallmark movie, yet it feels real.
The character of Lee is a rather unlikable person; you understand him by the film's end, but that doesn't make him forgivable. Even in flashbacks where he is a more animated person, he is no more likable. And where the film really excels is it doesn't offer up any redemption for him. This may be getting into minor spoilers, but one might expect a film like this to let Lee reconcile with his nephew and redeem himself. Yet there's a soul crushing line late in the film that let's you know that some things are irreparable. Some people can never come back.
Manchester by the Sea must be seen, if at least once. It's not really a good time; in fact, it will probably devastate most audience members. But its skill as a drama, its characters, everything about this movie is fantastic. It trusts the audience to know what is happening without holding their hands. That's a rare quality for a film in this day and age.
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