Directed by:
Kenneth LonerganScreenplay:
Kenneth LonerganCinematography:
Jody Lee LipesComposer:
Lesley BarberCast:
Casey Affleck, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler, Michelle Williams, C.J. Wilson, Heather Burns, Tate Donovan, Josh Hamilton, Matthew Broderick, Gretchen Mol (more)Plots(1)
Casey Affleck stars as Lee, a man whose spare existence is suddenly ruptured when the death of his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) forces him to return to the hometown he abandoned years before. Rocked by contact with his estranged ex-wife (Michelle Williams) and the revelation that Joe has made him guardian of his teenage son (Lucas Hedges), Lee is forced to face up to painful memories and new-found levels of responsibility as he reconnects with his family. (StudioCanal UK)
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Reviews (13)
Formal austerity, characters that are difficult to penetrate and even more difficult to leave, the impossibility of communication and escape from one's own past, from one's own life. An excellently constructed script that, by gradually revealing the past, allows us to slowly become attached to the main character, with whom we also seem to be searching for a glimmer of hope in the bleak psychological darkness. Casey Affleck's performance is once again chillingly convincing and depressing, but the young Hedges or, for those few minutes, the mesmerizing Michelle Williams are not far behind. To my complete satisfaction, it lacks a slightly steadier pace, and at times I didn't entirely agree with the onslaught of the pervasive depression that tests the flow of tear ducts at the expense of maintaining pure authenticity. That said, the impression is very intense and the ending cinematically beautiful, life is a ungrateful bitch and Lonergan has an apt balladic way of telling it. 80%
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Lonergan is an amazing screenwriter. The compositionality of the film, the work with ordinariness, with economical dialogues, with what is to be shown up close, or what to observe from a distance through a hint - masterful. The directing struggles a bit with the exaggerated ceremony of selected moments, when Lonergan suddenly helps himself with a mournful Händel and decelerators. But he never takes its feet out from under it, in the best moments his focused and laconic leadership of the actors and watching the routine of the fading (and still present) tragedy is extremely strong. Manchester by the Sea has the ability to constantly slide toward pathos, but it never does so. It feels sparing, despite the fact that behind the main character is a drama almost ancient, behind which we can clearly perceive the script design. But Lonergan can handle it. He does not abuse misery, and the chemistry between Affleck, Hedges and the supporting characters is completely physically perceptible in every shot. A film about the difficult art of mourning, about the inability to accept wounds and return to where one cannot forget the past. I look forward to watching it again, and it’s the most impressive American indie since Boyhood.
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A painful punch right to the heart. A film whose author must be on the same frequency as I, because I understood every scene. Everything was in its place, everything made sense. It’s been a long time since I felt 137 minutes passing so fast, even though on paper they should have dragged (and judging by the comments, they did drag for many people).
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A film about human pain, guilt, failure, and the attempt to somehow cope with it all. It is pleasantly and cleverly cast, with Casey Affleck suiting his role as if Lonergan had written it specifically for him. I haven't seen enough of him to confidently say that he normally acts brilliantly, or if it was just a great casting choice. Unfortunately, Manchester by the Sea doesn't score as high with me as I expected because it only works partially. My attention was unilaterally drawn from the beginning to the end by Lee Chandler, while the director wanted to build the film on the relationship and confrontation between the uncle and nephew. However, Patrick as a teenager was not interesting to me, unfortunately. The film worked perfectly until Lee became a mystery to me, and I didn't understand all of the bitterness, emotional instability, and inaccessibility of his personality. The revelation should have come to me in the end. Nevertheless, I understand why there is so much talk about the film and why it is considered worthy of an Oscar nomination. Overall impression: 65%.
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With exaggeration and in big quotation marks it’s Nocturnal Animals for the lower middle-class or country people. It's slow, weaving and painful (in the spirit of Eastwood's films), playing out several plot levels and exposing painful life events and decisions, or the inability to cope with them, but it is more oversimplified and easier to read. The most interesting thing about it is that it is paradoxically so direct and non-cinematic, because half of the scenes are without music and with so much authenticity and energy that it feels like your next-door neighbour is living the story. A cinematic event, no doubt, just not for everyone and it will have to mature a bit more, but a must-see for film scholars.
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