Manchester By the Sea Review

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     It’s a really good time to be an Affleck brother. Ben, after a decade of being a joke of an actor, returned to prominence as one of the premier directors working today with hits like The Town and the Best Picture-winning film Argo. Oh, and he’s Batman, so there’s that. Meanwhile, his brother Casey has been rising up himself, taking smaller and more interesting roles like The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, Gone Baby Gone (directed by Ben), and Out of the Furnace. This year, while Ben is off battling Superman and making a pretty rad-looking gangster flick, Casey is in this film, a critical darling aiming to get a ton of awards. But is it actually that good? Let’s find out!

     Manchester by the Sea is the story of Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), a handyman for an apartment complex in Quincy, Massachusetts who lives a very quiet, unassuming life. Staying in a room that more closely resembles a closet and keeping to himself, Lee’s life changes when he learns that his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) has died and that he is now the legal guardian of Joe’s son Patrick (Lucas Hedges). As he struggles with handling Joe’s estate and dealing with his nephew, Lee is forced to face the dark past that drove him away from his family and made him the broken, sad man that he is. Can he find healing and a new purpose, or is he destined to destroy himself and drag his family down with him?

     This film appears to be nothing more than the standard “oh woe is me” weepy Oscar bait nonsense, but it’s so much more than that. Director Kenneth Lonergan did something ingenious with the structure, setting up the first half as some sort of mystery. The opening scene is one of Lee and a younger Patrick on the family boat, laughing and goofing around, and the next time we see Lee he’s broken down, alone and borderline emotionless. How did he get to that point? Well, I won’t dare spoil it for you here (spoilers: it’s insanely sad and heartbreaking), but when that information is doled out through flashbacks the rest of the film is about watching Lee try to put his life back together, and his struggle is very engaging once you have that context. You really care about this character, and all the surrounding players as well, and despite all evidence you still root for him to fix things and repair his broken heart.

     Casey Affleck is getting the lion’s share of the attention for his acting, and he deserves every bit of it. He sells the pain and heartbreak Lee is suffering with little more than a few choice glances and a flat delivery of a good majority of his lines, and what’s even more impressive is that he pulls it off effortlessly. However, I think the movie wouldn’t work as well without Lucas Hedges as Patrick, who is the youthful and energetic counterbalance to Lee’s gloominess. While Patrick is still grieving his father, he chooses to try and live his life to distract from it all, pursuing the teenage distractions most teens do. When it’s time for him to let his emotions out, though, Hedges gives a performance just as powerful as any this year. The other big name here is Michelle Williams as Randi, Lee’s ex-wife, who isn’t in the film much but nails each and every scene she’s in. Her few scenes carry a lot of weight and I almost teared up during her last meeting with Lee, as she desperately tries to get him to open up to her and he just tries to hold it together and leave the situation.

     I’d never heard of Kenneth Lonergan before this movie, but I was taken back almost from the beginning by his skills as a director. There are a lot of wide, glorious shots of the little town of Manchester, especially the sea that it rests on. In fact, I love how that plays into the actual story, since Lee is usually seen looking out over the water longingly like he’s seeing a ghost. That being said, the only time we see Lee smile in the present day is when he’s on the water, and those little moments when he lets his guard down remind us of that great tragedy and the effect it had on him. The relationship between Lee and Patrick is also mirrored in this, as Joe’s boat becomes a point of contention between them. Lee wants to get rid of it, because it’s run down and more than likely because it reminds him of the past, while Patrick is determined to keep the boat and fix it because that’s what his father would have wanted. There are other things that show the artistry behind the scenes, but what it all boils down to is that there’s a great director that was charged with helming the film and he succeeded with flying colors.

     Yes, this movie sounds sad and depressing and it is, but it also has a strong undercurrent of humor to keep things from getting too heavy. Most of the humor comes from Patrick as he tries to navigate his teenage life, from playing in a remarkably terrible band and going on a seemingly eternal quest to get laid. Lee doesn’t get away without a few jokes, either, with his attempts to pass on the guardianship of Patrick ranging from pathetic to comical and taking a few pot shots at his nephew that are simply too good to be pass up on. A lot of the locals are also very funny, and Lonergan did a great job selecting extras who seem like real people to be there and interact with Lee and Patrick. It adds to the realistic feel of the movie, since no matter how dark life can get there is still always humor to be found.

     There is only one real flaw I can think off in this movie, and it’s the music that is used. For the majority of the film there is no score, only the sounds of what’s happening around the characters. However, during some of the more dramatic moments a strange choir appears as if out of nowhere, singing some very heavy-handed Catholic-themed arias that threatened to break my immersion into it. In fact, the biggest moment is almost ruined by the score appearing, then disappearing, then reappearing again randomly. It’s the only thing that isn’t perfect in this and is a minor complaint for sure, but it still stuck out to me.

     Manchester by the Sea is a beautiful examination of tragedy and brokenness, anchored by an amazing performance from Casey Affleck and a great script. It might be a little long or a little too heavy for some people, but I think this is a movie everyone that isn’t a kid should see and enjoy in the theater. Trust me, you’ll be hearing a lot about this in the next few months, and hopefully we’ll be hearing more from Kenneth Lonergan in the near future.

My Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Manchester by the Sea is in theaters now.

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