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).
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.
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.
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