← Back to Reviews
in
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Kenneth Lonergan, the creative force behind the 2000 sleeper You Can Count on Me has triumphed with 2016's Manchester by the Sea, a beautifully crafted and emotionally-charged look at grief, family dysfunction, and family responsibility and the emotional chaos that can ensue as the manifestations of same begin to blur. This moving and mesmerizing drama received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Casey Affleck turns in the performance of his career as Lee Chandler, an apartment complex handyman in a suburb of Boston called Quincy, who receives word that his brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler) has lost his long battle with heart disease and travels to neighboring Manchester to handle his brother's affairs but more importantly, be there for his teenage nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Lee is thrown when he learns that Joe has requested in his will that Lee become Patrick's legal guardian, which would require Lee to move back to Manchester, which is something Lee cannot do.
Lonergan proves himself a masterful storyteller here, providing a leisurely pacing to a story that, even though it is told out of sequence, is very easy to become enveloped in and relate to everything this central character Lee is going through, but patience is required of the viewer and it is spectacularly rewarded, with an absolutely shocking backstory that not only clarifies why Lee has become the social hermit he is now but, more importantly, why there is no way he can resume a life in Manchester.
Lonergan's intricate screenplay first introduces us to Lee, Joe, and Patrick when Patrick was still grade school age and then moves back and forth between the past and present as we watch Lee take care of business and his nephew while simultaneously trying to handle the pain that this return to Manchester is causing him. I was impressed by the maturity of the relationship that develops between Lee and Patrick after Joe's death...Lee steps up where his nephew is concerned but never tries to become his father. I love the scene where Patrick asks Lee if it's all right if his girlfriend sleeps over, expecting a fight from Lee about it but not getting one. There's also a realistic sense of Patrick realizing that he can get away with things with his uncle that he was unable to get away with his dad and he definitely takes advantage of it up to a point.
I think Casey Affleck deserves the Oscar that has alluded him up to this point with a beautifully controlled and internalized performance that provides some truly shocking and explosive moments because of the actor's control of his performance, which I'm sure director Lonergan (who also makes a brief cameo) had a lot to do with and the relationship Affleck cultivates onscreen with Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges as Patrick is lovely as is the one with ex-wife, Randi, effectively brought to life by Michelle Williams in a performance that earned her a 4th Oscar nomination and Kyle Chandler also scores as Joe, a character we only meet in flashback.
The film is beautifully photographed (can't believe it was not nominated for cinematography) and this is one of the first films in a long long time that features music from Handel's Messiah as part of its score, but it works beautifully. More than anything, this is a testament to the talent of Kenneth Lonergan.
Kenneth Lonergan, the creative force behind the 2000 sleeper You Can Count on Me has triumphed with 2016's Manchester by the Sea, a beautifully crafted and emotionally-charged look at grief, family dysfunction, and family responsibility and the emotional chaos that can ensue as the manifestations of same begin to blur. This moving and mesmerizing drama received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Casey Affleck turns in the performance of his career as Lee Chandler, an apartment complex handyman in a suburb of Boston called Quincy, who receives word that his brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler) has lost his long battle with heart disease and travels to neighboring Manchester to handle his brother's affairs but more importantly, be there for his teenage nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Lee is thrown when he learns that Joe has requested in his will that Lee become Patrick's legal guardian, which would require Lee to move back to Manchester, which is something Lee cannot do.
Lonergan proves himself a masterful storyteller here, providing a leisurely pacing to a story that, even though it is told out of sequence, is very easy to become enveloped in and relate to everything this central character Lee is going through, but patience is required of the viewer and it is spectacularly rewarded, with an absolutely shocking backstory that not only clarifies why Lee has become the social hermit he is now but, more importantly, why there is no way he can resume a life in Manchester.
Lonergan's intricate screenplay first introduces us to Lee, Joe, and Patrick when Patrick was still grade school age and then moves back and forth between the past and present as we watch Lee take care of business and his nephew while simultaneously trying to handle the pain that this return to Manchester is causing him. I was impressed by the maturity of the relationship that develops between Lee and Patrick after Joe's death...Lee steps up where his nephew is concerned but never tries to become his father. I love the scene where Patrick asks Lee if it's all right if his girlfriend sleeps over, expecting a fight from Lee about it but not getting one. There's also a realistic sense of Patrick realizing that he can get away with things with his uncle that he was unable to get away with his dad and he definitely takes advantage of it up to a point.
I think Casey Affleck deserves the Oscar that has alluded him up to this point with a beautifully controlled and internalized performance that provides some truly shocking and explosive moments because of the actor's control of his performance, which I'm sure director Lonergan (who also makes a brief cameo) had a lot to do with and the relationship Affleck cultivates onscreen with Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges as Patrick is lovely as is the one with ex-wife, Randi, effectively brought to life by Michelle Williams in a performance that earned her a 4th Oscar nomination and Kyle Chandler also scores as Joe, a character we only meet in flashback.
The film is beautifully photographed (can't believe it was not nominated for cinematography) and this is one of the first films in a long long time that features music from Handel's Messiah as part of its score, but it works beautifully. More than anything, this is a testament to the talent of Kenneth Lonergan.