Manchester by the Sea (2016)
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Review #1,408 |
THE SCOOP
Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler
Plot: An uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.
Genre: Drama
Awards: Won 2 Oscars - Best Leading Actor, Best Original Screenplay. Nom. for 4 Oscars - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress
Runtime: 137min
Rating: NC16 for language throughout and some sexual content
Distributor: United International Pictures
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: NO)
“I can't
beat it. I can't beat it. I'm sorry.”
If you are still not convinced of Casey Affleck
as an actor, Manchester by the Sea will
pull you across the fence. He is the
brooding presence of Kenneth Lonergan's long-awaited third feature (he takes
long breaks between projects), giving us a performance that is best described
as socially withdrawn, and likely to win him his first acting Oscar.
He plays Lee Chandler, a man suffering from a
deep sadness, which the film through its dexterity in non-linear editing would
reveal different time periods of his troubled life. His is a fully-developed character, a janitor-cum-handyman
working in Boston, whose past continues to keep him from moving on, but when he
receives news that his brother in Manchester has died, he reluctantly becomes
the legal guardian of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges in a pleasantly
surprising Oscar-nominated role).
That sets the narrative gears running in what
is a slow-building but assuredly-crafted tale of grief, guilt and loss. But Lonergan, in his development of the
Lee-Patrick relationship, doesn’t forget about human connection, hope and redemption,
even if these seem to be hard-to-reach fantasies for Lee.
What makes Manchester
by the Sea engaging despite a heavy sense of abject is Lonergan's astute
balance of dialogue and silence. The
‘silence’ here is expressed poetically through a wordless series of images, be
it of boats in the sea, snow-covered roads and houses, or in the film’s most
formidable depiction, a key montage paired with the elegiac strings of ‘Adagio
Per Archi E Organo in Sol Minore’, which is left to play in its entirety.
The only times when Lee could afford a rare
smile are when he’s on the family boat, with his brother and nephew, a trio of
guys enjoying fishing and the small, intimate moments of life. That was in a different, simpler time. It reminds us: we all had our boats, now long
gone. But Lonergan tells us: as life
goes on, there are other boats to get on, though they don’t come by
easily. He deserves to win the Oscar for
Best Original Screenplay.
Manchester
by the Sea eschews,
for better or worse, a sense of emotional catharsis for a deep exploration of
what makes a wounded soul. If a heavy
heart could ever materialise in a physical, cinematic form, it would become
this picture.
Verdict: A slow-building, assuredly-crafted tale of
grief, guilt and loss, carried forth with brooding intensity by the remarkable
Casey Affleck.
GRADE: A-
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