Manchester by the Sea

(2016) *** 1/2 R
137 min. Roadside Attractions. Director: Kenneth Lonergan. Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler.

/content/films/4999/1.jpgKenneth Lonergan knows people. As the writer-director proved with his beautifully gentle breakthrough You Can Count on Me and his sophomore feature Margaret (as well as the plays This Is Our Youth and Lobby Hero), he is the master of telling behavior and conversational nuance. With Lonergan, the devil is in the details, but so are the angels. Lonergan sees where a person can stumble but believes in humanity’s capacity for balance. And when you do fall, Lonergan has faith that you can count on someone to be good enough to help you up.

That’s the crux of the prolific screenwriter’s third film as director: Manchester by the Sea. No, it’s not a stately-homes costume drama or your parents’ favorite bed and breakfast. It’s the Massachusetts home town of the film’s central figure, the determined island of a man that is Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck). When his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) passes away, bristly handyman Lee must return home to make arrangements, further complicated the ones Joe secretly laid out in his will.

Though Lee cares about his 16-year-old nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges), the socially shut down older man isn’t prepared to take on a teen’s guardianship. When he does, with his eyes ever darting toward the exit, uncle and nephew quickly establish a newly, mutually testy relationship. Their problems are complicated by Lee’s total discomfort with the town where Patrick has worked his social life to include two girlfriends and a garage band drolly named Stentorian.

Lonergan’s pronounced sense of humor makes bearable the story’s unfathomable grief. Aside from the fresh wound of Joe’s death, Lee has a hole where his heart should be as a result of the personal tragedy that decimated his own family. In one of the film’s very best scenes, Lee awkwardly confronts his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams, raw as ever), both desperately protecting their own emotional needs even as each seeks not to hurt the other.

In its broad strokes, Manchester by the Sea doesn’t explore anything new. Its story of grief is familiar, some might even say “hackneyed.” But no other writer-director could craft a scene as masterful as the one when Lee arrives at the hospital where his brother’s body awaits him in the morgue. We’ve already seen Lee to be allergic to small talk and disinterested in human contact. Awkwardly navigating the unknown terrain of post-mortem arrangements, the shambolic Lee further unnerves all involved with his emotional disconnect and circuitous verbiage, played with symphonic precision by Affleck.

Well matched by a finely tuned Hedges, Affleck’s sad, sad man embodies the film’s central, character-exploring theme. Deaths happen. Life goes mercilessly on. And it rarely does so in the manner of tidy resolution, Good Will Hunting be damned. In fact, producer Matt Damon hatched the plot (with John Krasinski) and originally planned to direct. But handed to his trusted colleague Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea becomes something inimitable and special: an empathetic guided tour of despair and the loving effort to rise above, if only for those who still have hope.

Share/bookmark: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Fark Furl Google Bookmarks Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Yahoo! My Web Permalink Permalink
Bluray

Aspect ratios: 1.85:1

Number of discs: 2

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Street date: 2/21/2017

Distributor: Lionsgate


Lionsgate offers a fine Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD special edition for Manchester by the Sea. The digital-to-digital transfer captures the film's generally wintry-cool, melancholy look and achieves a beautiful level of detail. As with any digital HD transfer, the brighter the lighting, the better the sharpness of detail, so low-lit interiors can get a tad murky in shadow detail, but that's part and parcel of the source material, which gets an entirely faithful rendering here. The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix provides some useful ambience in outdoor walk-and-talks, a key flashback sequence, and scenes which take place on "the sea" (or, rather, the family boat). Primarily, though, this is a dialogue-driven film enhanced by choice musical cues, which get a full-bodied treatment in this spot-on mix.

Bonus features kick off with the audio commentary dubbed A Conversation with Director/Writer Kenneth Lonergan. The discs' content producer engages Lonergan in this discussion, and the soft-spoken but personable director proves ready to take us through the project's interesting development, its execution in production particulars, and his work with the actors. The making-of featurette "Emotional Lives: Making Manchester by the Sea" (16:00, HD) delves satisfyingly deep with cast and crew while providing behind-the-scenes glimpses of shooting. Lastly, we get a suite of "Deleted Scenes" (5:50, HD).


 

Review gear:
Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT30 55" Plasma 1080p 3D HDTV
Oppo BDP-93 Universal Network 3D Blu-ray Disc Player
Denon AVR2112CI Integrated Network A/V Surround Receiver
Pioneer SP-BS41-LR Bookshelf Speaker (2)
Pioneer SP-C21 Center Speaker
Pioneer SW-8 Subwoofer

Share this review:
Share/bookmark: del.icio.us Digg Facebook Fark Furl Google Bookmarks Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Yahoo! My Web Permalink Permalink
Sponsored Links