Manchester By The Sea (2016)

 

Genre: Drama

Time: 2h 17mins

Director: Kenneth Lonergan

Quick Summary: A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.

Going into this you can tell this is gonna be a sad film and it really is what you sign up for. 

Something I wasn't sure if I liked personally or not, but I understand what this was doing, was mostly every scene felt awkward or not of the actors felt like they were "acting." This feels like real people and you're just peaking into a moment of their life. It's supposed to be raw and realistic, so I get why they did this with all the slightly dull dialogue or conversations that never seemed right or "Pre-Planned" I wasn't fully sure about this, because yes it's true to what the tone of the film is, but made it feel boring for me and felt very very slow a lot of the time. 

The main lead, Casey Affleck at first I strongly disliked. I found him arrogant, uncaring and honestly a dick, but as I continued to watch I slowly understood why he was the way he was and I sympathized with him eventually. His performance is never out there, it's more gentle. You can see the expression of deep sadness in him, and he really shows you someone who has been chucked into a deep end of a situation and just doesn't know what to do. It is good, especially for a film like this to want to root for a person like this and hope his life gets better. 

I struggled with how slow this film is, added with the not-too-exciting script, I found my attention wandering a lot, especially with how long it is. The first half is an extremely slow burn. It's full of flashbacks that make it confusing as to what is actually happening, though it does eventually even out by the second half.  There are a few scenes which I disliked, like one where the young teenager is crying over a freezer which I honestly found so confusing and a conversation right at the end that I felt was abrupt overall from how it started to how it ended.

I do see why people like his, as it is a very heartbreaking film and in no way at all a feel-good film which we don't have a lot like this one, so it is unique in its own area. Its landscape shots and backgrounds are so pretty to look at, everything is muted enough so nothing was contrasting or dragging focus away. I did actually like the humour in this, very blunt though. It's not humour that goes out of its way to be funny, it's just moments that are only funny in their context and feel real in how they are delivered. 

Without saying too much about the ending, I found it interesting, as one person gets their resolution but not the other. In a bizarre way, I'm glad it wasn't happy. This film didn't need a happy ending to conclude its story. It's not escapism and it shows you what the real world is life, with all of its downs. 

Complex emotions are shown in this in complex situations, nothing is simple and it's so fascinating to watch them be explored. People can still love each other, and not be able to forgive each other for a situation. People can want to help themselves in life but also want to put it on hold for another, but only temporarily so they can get back to their life as quickly as possible. People can stay broken no matter how much effort they put in and others want them to get better. 

7/10

"Patrick: What happened to your hand?

Lee Chandler: I cut it.

Patrick: Oh, thanks. For a minute there, I didn't know what happened."

"I can't beat it. I can't beat it. I'm sorry."