Manchester by the Sea (2. Dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy turns a once warm and ebullient family man into a solemn, withdrawn, and angry loner in Kenneth Lonergan's (. Set in the picturesque city of Manchester on Massachusetts' north shore, cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes (. It is a town that looks as if it has not changed in decades, or even centuries. Lee Chandler, in a haunting performance by Casey Affleck (. His nights are spent drinking alone in bars where he is quick to start fights or at home watching TV in his small apartment. There is no hint during the film's first half hour about what has brought him to his present state of disequilibrium, but in his mumbling inability to express his thoughts, we know that something unspoken is driving his need for isolation. Terence Rattigan described The Deep Blue Sea as 'the hardest of my plays to write'. Unlike his contemporaries, Coward and Priestley, who wrote many. The 1984 slasher film Satan's Blade was set to come out last year from Slasher // Video, but they (or he - I think it's just one guy) signed a deal with Olive Films. Lee has been living in nearby Quincy but, when his older brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler, . His grief over his brother's death turns to shock, however, when he discovers that he has been named the legal guardian of Joe's 1. Patrick (Lucas Hedges, . Since Patrick's mom Elise (Gretchen Mol, . Eventually, the seminal event that changed Lee's life forever is revealed, depicted in a straightforward manner without histrionics or pandering, even if the overused baroque music tends to amplify the drama beyond what is required.
In flashback, we see that Lee was once a happy family man with a loving wife Randi (Michelle Williams, . Assuming the responsibility of being a father- figure to Patrick, we glimpse the man that Lee used to be. The dialogue between the abrasive Lee and the feisty, sharp- tongued Patrick feels real and without guile but channeling the chemistry they have together into rebuilding his life is a challenge. Manchester by the Sea is a serious film but is balanced by humor. In one such scene, Patrick awkwardly attempts to hide the obvious from his mom about studying in his room with his girlfriend. Another funny incident takes place when Lee is used as a cover for Patrick's surreptitious juggling of his two girlfriends. The issues between them take a more serious tone, however, when Lee is convinced that he and Patrick should move to Boston, a suggestion that Patrick rebels at, citing his high school girlfriends, his being on the soccer team, and his playing in the school band. Though Michelle Williams has a small role, she turns in one of her best performances. In a powerful confrontation with Lee, it is clear that she still loves him but has felt compelled to suppress it in order to bury the past and move on. Manchester by the Sea belongs to Casey Affleck, however, who turns in what is arguably the best performance of his career. The film does not have the sort of neat resolution that you may have come to expect but what it does have are real people whose lives you want to be a part of and you know that that world is not one that can only happen in the movies, but a real experience of life fully lived in all its pain and all its joy.
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