Manchester by the Sea

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A sign of a good film is that one wants to return to it over and over for repeated viewings. It is difficult to imagine many viewers who would wish to endure an encore performance of "Manchester By the Sea." Apparently, the goal of the filmmakers was to depict an American domestic tragedy. But all too often, the serious nature of the content is conflated with comedy. In the bonus segment of the DVD, it was made clear that writer-director Kenny Lonergan believes that all films should have a balance of tragedy and comedy. Unfortunately, he never found the right balance in "Manchester By the Sea." Take for instance the tasteless scene in the kitchen where the young nephew has a "breakdown" when he opens the freezer door and conflates the frozen chicken with the remains of his dead father, which are currently housed in a freezer. Or, what about the farcical scenes where the young man is attempting to have sex with his girlfriend and the girl's mother repeatedly knocks on the door? Or, what about the ridiculous barroom brawls where the specialty of Lee is the sucker punch for unsuspecting men. How is it that Lee is never prosecuted by the police? All too frequently, the serious drama is overwhelmed by scenes that are not credible. The result is that it is difficult to empathize with the characters. This problem is intensified by the ridiculous dialogue throughout the "Manchester" screenplay. The lines spoken by the actors have no connection with true-to-life dialogue. A cardiologist would never tell a patient, "You have a bad disease." Was this another Kenny Longeran attempt at comedy? In order to engage the audience, the film must draw on lifelike conversation. This never happened in the film. Somehow, the august members of the Academy honored "Manchester by the Sea" with the best original screenplay Oscar this year. The viewer can make up his or her mind as to whether the scripting was original or completely incompetent. Like so many indies, this film had pretensions of high art, as it contrasted idyllic scenes from New England with the sordid details of the lives of its inhabitants. The main character, Lee Chandler, who works as a handyman, is in conversation with a tenant, who casually recounts a story about one of his relatives, who went out to sea on a tuna boat and was never seen again. Michelle Williams, reprising her long-suffering character from "Brokeback Mountain," apologizes to Lee for the horrible things she said to him. Supposedly, this is her "big scene" in the film. But we never hear what were those hurtful words, and we never learn what happened to the tuna boat. Once again, the scripting of this film is suspect. The question arises as to the nature of guilt on the part of Lee for the deaths of his children, following his negligence in not placing the screen in front of the fireplace. Once again, the movie clumsily mixes serious and comic styles, never providing a believable context for the viewer to become emotionally engaged. For example, Lee is given a free pass by the authorities for child endangerment, manslaughter, or possession of drugs on the night of the fire, just as he is never prosecuted for assault and battery on innocent bystanders whom he attacked in bars. He is even able to keep his job as a handyman after verbally assailing the apartment residents. Apparently, it is enough for the filmmakers to casually depict Lee's guilt in the superficial way that he tortures himself and those around him. As he confesses to his nephew, his only philosophical insight is "I can't beat it." That is not a terribly profound revelation, and "Manchester By the Sea" is not a terribly profound film.

And just a general bummer. Granted, Affleck's performance was very good. And the kid was likable. But there wasn't much of a road traveled. It was just walking back and forth on the same street. Very repetitive. I believe it took 45 minutes to get to when Affleck finds out he's the guardian. Way too long. Just a lot of regular people being regular people in the midst of a tragedy that was likely to happen eventually. I found it very odd how the kid takes the death of his father for granted. Sure, there was one panic attack very late in the movie, but it really didn't seem genuine. And everything was very repetitive. Many different ways on how the kid wants to have sex with his girlfriend. For some reason this is very important to him, even though he's having sex with another girl. Doesn't really make him likable. I really didn't find that it would be difficult to find time to have sex with either of them. Then several instances where Affleck and the kid have back-and-forths that were funny, but were numerous. No real reason why the kid had an attachment to Affleck being that he was absent a vast majority of the time. It was odd that the dead father completely prepared for his death but there was no money left over for an engine for the boat. And it was just a bummer. Affleck failed at the task at hand. He could not move forward. He was an aggressive drunk at the beginning and the same at the end. He did not overcome anything. Life just went on. How cheery!

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA is perfect in every way. A film that's as emotionally powerful as it is exquisitely shot. Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams are phenomenal. Young talent Lucas Hedges is a must-see. Oscar nominated writer/director Kenneth Lonergan's way of capturing the struggling working class of America comes from a genuine place. Oscar nominee Casey Affleck plays a solitary Boston janitor, Lee Chandler, who returns to his hometown after the death of his older brother in order to take care of his teenage nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Lee is very reluctant about taking on this new responsibility because he's already overwhelmed as it is living from paycheck to paycheck, in addition to being haunted by a certain past tragedy that separated him from his wife, Randi (Michelle Williams). Casey Affleck originally came from Massachusetts, from this story's neck of the woods, so he brings a lot of himself and his familiarity with the region into his character. The film shows us small town USA, it shows us a fishing village, it shows us a place with long tradition, a way of living that's been handed down from generation to generation. So the region itself plays a very integral supporting role in MANCHESTER BY THE SEA. If you understand that, then you'll understand the characters. What I love about this film is how funny and how poignant it is in its approach to explaining to us the importance family, community, sacrifice and adjusting to life after so much has been taken from you. When Lee suffered a loss, his brother was there. When his brother dies, he takes care of his brother's son. There's no escaping that, but you can just see everybody in that community just starts pulling their weight and pitching in voluntarily, you don't see much of that anymore, unfortunately, these days. And throughout the film, Lonergan wants to show us that that sense of having each other's backs is not yet instinct and he does it in a way that's honest. Even the arguments between Lee and Patrick, yes you'll laugh at their trying to make it work but at the same time you're kinda glad that they at least are arguing, in their own awkward way, they're communicating. Great performances by all the actors involved, I can't say enough to praise Affleck, Williams, and Hedges. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA is an example of strength in simplicity. -- Rama's Screen --

This is written for people who have already seen the film. Holding the audience captive in suspense as to what is the dark beyond in the main character's life does nothing. It slows down the movie and makes it tedious. When writers contrive these flashback-to-present scenes, it has to have a big payoff, or what's the point? In general, telling this story mostly chronologically would have served the pacing and sense of the film much better. After an hour or so into the film we finally know 'what happened' and finally we can really just watch the movie. The movie is about how a guy recovers from a tragedy by facing the prospect of becoming his nephew's guardian. But you don't get to be in on that until it's almost too late. It's stupid. The relationship between the uncle and nephew does turn out to be quite interesting and worth watching once you get there. Before then it's a conceptual writer's device to jump back and forth in time to somehow make the movie more suspenseful or something. Once the tragedy is revealed the movie becomes much more cohesive and for me, a pleasure to watch. Overall I think it is good, it's just perplexing as to why writers go to such great lengths to invent concepts that don't serve to tell the story well. Being artistic is mistaken for contriving conception. Oh well. It's still pretty good, with solid acting compensating for writer/director ego.

In Quincy, the quiet and ruthless janitor and handyman Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is summoned by George (C.J. Wilson), who is a family friend, to go to Manchester since his older brother Joe Chandler (Kyle Chandler) has had a heart attack and is in a hospital. When Lee arrives, Joe has just died and Lee makes arrangements for the funeral with George. Then he seeks out his sixteen year-old nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges) at the hockey training to tell the news. They go to the morgue and then they head to Joe's lawyer to learn his will. Lee is surprised that Joe has assigned him to be Patrick's guardian. He is reluctant and neither wants to stay in Manchester nor deliver his nephew to his alcoholic mother Elise (Gretchen Mol) and decides to bring Patrick with him to Quincy. However the teenager does not want to leave his life in the town. While planning Joe's burial and funeral, Lee is haunted by his past in Manchester, where he happily lived with his wife Randi (Michelle Williams) and three children until the day a tragedy happened with his family. What will be his final decision? "Manchester by the Sea" is a realistic film with a tragic and depressing story and no redemption for the lead character. The plot is well resolved for his beloved nephew Patrick but never to Lee, who does not forgive himself for what happened to his family due to his negligence. The direction, screenplay using flashback to explain Lee's behavior and performances are top-notch. Many viewers would expect a more optimistic and happier conclusion but the author chose only a better improvement in the lead character's attitude toward life and this might be the reason of great number of bad reviews. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Manchester À Beira-Mar" ("Manchester by the Sea")

After sitting through a very depressing 2 hrs and 17 min, I'm curious what parts of this movie made the 8+ rating here on IMDb. This has got to be one of the most monotonic, depressing, pathetic and utterly boring movies I have ever seen, and add to it that it was 137 mins, just baffles me how this was even made. What is the point? What is the viewer supposed to get out of watching this? Where is the entertainment? Where is the climax or high point to this film? Why was the score one of the, if not 'the' worst score in any movie I've ever seen? I've felt more alive listening to funeral home background music. And why is everyone praising the acting? It was terrible! Just start filming after all the actors wake up from a night of drinking and don't give them coffee, and make sure the weather is cloudy and cold, so they don't need to 'act' miserable, as they will automatically be, just as the viewer is left to feel. This has got to me one of the worst films I have ever seen -not a movie, just a film, as a movie has some entertainment value to it. Is this world not suffering enough that we need something to depress the viewers even more? Do yourself a favor and read the Plot Synopsis, it is on point, depressing, boring and very long, just like this film and doesn't leave anything out (btw props to whoever put the time in to type out this entire mess of a film). The difference is you can read it in 5 minutes, and save yourself the other 132 minutes to do something fun and exciting, you will thank me. Oh, and you're welcome.