Director: Kenneth Lonergan Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges Studio: Amazon Studios Genre(s): Drama Rated: R (For language throughout and some sexual content) |
We open “Manchester by the Sea” with a man fixing the pluming
for tenant at an apartment complex. The
tenants have various reactions to his help.
Some are grateful for his help.
Some are clearly not. One lady
jokes with her friend over the phone that she actually might have a crush on
her handy man, a comment that does not interest him in the slightest. He is simply doing his job, interacting with
the tenants on a bare minimum, and not having much of an opinion about anything
they are doing or thinking. He gets
upset at one of them, but aside from that, there is little to suggest the man
cares about much of anything. To the
point that the person I was watching the movie with was wondering if the actor
portraying the man (Casey Affleck) was just a bad actor. The thought did cross my mind, I have to
admit.
As the movie went on though, not only did Affleck show
himself to be an actor of greatness that I had never anticipated before, but
that Lee Chandler is one of the most tragic characters I’ve seen in a movie in
years. If he is walking through the first
part of the movie with a look of indifference and a shrug in his responses, it
is because he lost the will to live a long time ago and we simply haven’t
realized it yet. A situation occurred that
made him hate life and even himself.
When he has to go back to his home town to attend the funeral of his
older brother people recognize him immediately.
When they tell their friends that they spoke with him, the friends
follow up with “you spoke to THE Lee Chandler?!” Most of the time this type of setup cannot
possibly do justice to the event that set the characters reputation in motion,
but when we do find out what caused Lee to become a shell of a man, we find out
a little piece of us dies as well.
This is not a movie for those who want all sunshine and
rainbows. While the movie is shot in
broad daylight and many of the characters are about as nice as you could hope
for in a movie revolving around tragedy, there is an underlying sadness that
pierces the whole affair. There is also,
I should mention, something beautiful about “Manchester by the Sea” as
well. For the story revolves around this
man with a tragic past, coming home because of one more major loss in his life,
and finding that there may just be purpose for him yet, as he is made the legal
guardian of his sixteen-year old nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges). He hasn’t been close to his nephew since the
incident in question, but the boy now finds himself without family and Lee has
no purpose in life. Together, maybe the
two could help each other in ways they never thought possible.
The movie, it should be noted, moves at a slow, deliberate
pace. This is the kind of pacing that
would normally kill any other movie for the average viewer. So I must give credit to the direction of Kenneth
Lonergan, who seems to acknowledge the material will be tough for viewers and
challenging to sit through. He manages
to direct the movie in a way that doesn’t feel the need to speed run through
the events, but feeds us little bits of information to keep the audience
guessing what is about to come. For
those who are approaching this as a character drama rather than a mystery that
needs to be solved, they are bound to be very pleased with how good the
writing, acting, and direction of the film ends up being. Many tears will likely be shed. In some cases (like how I felt) there will be
times where you sit in disbelief at what has just happened.
A key scene involving Lee and his ex-wife Randi (Michelle
Williams) easily ranks as the saddest, most authentic scene of past regret I’ve
seen all year. A moment of great acting,
writing, and direction, coming together to make something piercing and
memorable. Please do not take all this
as a sign that “Manchester by the Sea” is anything but a soul crushing experience
though. In fact, if anything, the movie
is an affirmation on why life is worth living, and why relationships are worth
holding onto and trying to keep even when bridges are burned and feelings are
hurt. I want to end by pointing out that
the makers of the movie is Amazon.com of all people. Amazon.com has been looking for more original
content to own so that their Amazon Prime video service could become a
competitor to Netflix and Hulu. I find
it not only interesting that this is the type of movie they feel can help them
compete, but that despite the nature of the film, this is something that
benefits a lot more from the theater experience than the home one.
Some people may not understand what I mean by that, but “Manchester by the Sea” demands complete attention from the audience, and fiddling on your phone during it will rob you of a very rewarding experience. Eventually the movie will be going to their streaming service and hopefully people will watch it when it does. For the time being it is in theaters where it is clearly the best way to experience it, and I want to stress once more that this is the best way to. Amazon.com has also been funding some Woody Allen projects recently, and have even done the solid in making them decent sized box office hits. The advantage of internet sites getting into the movie business is that since a big screen is not their concern, they are more likely to greenlight movies that are great regardless what size the screen. That they happened to make a great theatrical experience may be an accident, but it’s one we all benefit from.
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CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, there is a lot of language throughout (as well as a few sex scenes that never quite get off the ground). Recommended for ages 17 and up.
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