Manchester By The Sea * * * * *

 In 2012 I decided that Margaret was the best film I’d seen that year.  I thought it was a beautiful piece of drama and I went and saw it three times, even dragging others along with me.

    I think Manchester By The Sea is a great drama too, though I am not sure that I will be dragging people along with me to a second viewing. Firstly, because, unlike Margaret, this has been broadly celebrated and most folk would have taken the time to see it themselves. Secondly, because I didn’t find it as overwhelming as Margaret, but a fine drama nonetheless.

    As in Margaret, director Kenneth Lonergan uses trauma as the centrepiece of the drama. Some horrifying event coming into someone's life in an instant and changing them forever.  Also, as in Magaret, the lead character has to come to grips with their own contribution to what has happened.

In Margaret we see the life changing event very close to the start of the film, in Manchester By The Sea it  is not until we are well into the film that we learn what is troubling the main character.

    We are introduced to Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) as a lonely man working as a maintenance man in an apartment block. His fuse is as short as any conversation he reluctantly has. His interest in other people is negligible. Any overture from women is rebuffed.  He goes home each night to a spartan apartment.

   Then he gets a phone call. His brother is dying. But this isn’t the life changing event.  It’s what we learn when we arrive at Manchester By The Sea.- something that happened years earlier - that makes Lee Chandler the empty man that he is.  The horror of it would be enough to haunt any person for the rest of their life.  His own accidental contribution to the event has caused many people in his hometown to treat him with contempt, but they’d never be able to compete with his own self loathing.

    As tempting as it is to tell you what terrible burden from his past he has to struggle with, I won't.   But I can tell you he is surprised to learn that his  deceased brother has asked Lee to be the guardian of his only child, a teenage boy, Patrick.

   Lee is a single man living on a low wage and huge issues from his past. He feels hopelessly unqualified.  Besides, he has no desire to adopt the boy, but for now he will move into his brother's house and stay with Patrick.

   In flashback we see the life that Lee had in Manchester By The Sea and the event that broke his life.  But in present day we see him with Patrick as he helps him through the loss of his father.  Also in present day we see the people from Lee's past and how they react to his return to the town - their memories raw from the horrendous event.  Some things are not forgotten or overcome but they have to be be dealt with.  Nothing from forgiveness to vengeance to alcohol to self-hate will make it go away.  

    Like Margaret, Manchester By The Sea shows one person dealing with these facts as best he can.

    Manchester By The Sea is a powerful drama told with grace. Unlike the "shaky camera" trend we are seeing so much of lately (like a jealous director trying to get into the scene with his actors) Manchester By The Sea shows it’s scenes modestly and unobtrusively allowing us to concentrate on the drama and the dialogue.  Even the adoption of classical music is appropriate. Probably most effectively used as we are shown the event that has so damaged and changed Lee Chandler.  Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor is 8½ minutes long and that is how long it takes for  us to watch what happened to Lee Chandler - no dialogue, no other sound.  Just that music from beginning to end as we watch the dreadful event unfold.  It works.
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