'Manchester By The Sea'

In cinemas now!

Lee (Casey Affleck) has become somewhat estranged from his family but the death of his brother brings him back to Manchester to tie up affairs. Unbeknownst to him his brother has named him legal guardian of his sixteen year old son Patrick (Lucas Hedges) in his will and Lee is far from thrilled.

As Lee tries to come to grips with this revelation in the midst of supervising a moody teenager we learn through flashback of the tragic story that led to him leaving Manchester and his family behind and what destroyed his marriage to Randi (Michelle Williams).

This a compelling drama with a strong emotional core that all of sudden rips your heart out and stomps on it screaming “You want some feelings! Here’s all the feelings!”

Okay, I’m being silly but the film really does do this, I mean, metaphorically obviously, it doesn’t really do this. The movie doesn’t have an especially upbeat feel anyway and Lee is a broken man even before his brother dies. The curious way the town treats him does make you wonder what his story is, but when it’s finally revealed holy hell I wasn’t prepared and I don’t think anyone in the theatre was.

Anyway, no spoilers, but the story of Lee trying to reconnect with his old life, reluctant though it may be, and having to figure out what it means to have family again is brilliantly realised by Casey and Lucas, each of them drawing equal levels of sympathy and frustration from the audience.

This is a subtle character piece and can feel slow at times but I don’t think I was ever bored, and whilst we’re not building to a particularly dramatic conclusion we don’t really need to. Most of the drama has happened outside of our main story and we’re watching some beautifully portrayed characters dealing with the various issues in their past, some very immediate, some old wounds and some so deep they never truly go away.

​Excellent film, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed though you may be emotionally wrecked.

Review by Kristian Mitchell-Dolby.

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