Review: Manchester By the Sea
Casey Affleck is living a modest
existence in Quincy, Massachusetts doing odd jobs no one else likely wants to
do, including fixing toilets. He’s dragged back to the title coastal
Massachusetts town with the news that his older brother (Kyle Chandler) has
died of congestive heart failure, which wasn’t entirely unexpected. What is
unexpected however, is when he arrives in town to find through the family
lawyer (Josh Hamilton) that Chandler has left Affleck trustee of his estate and
the legal guardian of Chandler’s teenage lothario son Lucas Hedges (He’s got
two girls lusting after him). The boy’s mother Gretchen Mol was a substance
abuser who abandoned her family years ago. Affleck has no idea how to look
after a teenager. In fact, the self-loathing handyman can barely give two shits
about himself. You see, he and his ex-wife Michelle Williams were struck by
tragedy a few years back, a tragedy that Affleck was unintentionally personally
responsible for and he has never allowed himself to get over it or himself. And
now he’s supposed to provide guidance and support for a dickhead wannabe player
teenager? It’s gonna be a bumpy ride. Tate Donovan plays Hedges’ hockey coach,
Stephen Henderson briefly appears as Affleck’s boss.
Although it’s founded on that
hoary old plot device that I’m getting mighty sick of (guy comes back to
hometown after the death of a family member), this 2016 flick from
writer-director Kenneth Lonergan (whose screenwriting credits include “Analyse
This” and “Gangs of New York”, he also wrote and directed “You
Can Count on Me”) overcomes its clichéd set-up. This is a really good, sad,
taciturn movie that is at times uncomfortably real. The bitterness and the
reality are what ultimately set this one apart from most of the others with a
similar jumping-off point. It doesn’t surprise me that the story’s genesis
comes from a suggestion made by producers Matt Damon and John Krasinski,
because the latter’s “The Hollars” covers similar territory, albeit less
effectively. I still need to give it a bit of a hard time for that set-up, as
I’d be a hypocrite otherwise, since I gave “The Hollars” some shit for
it. All I can say is that this is an infinitely better film than that was.
Immediately one notices that Casey
Affleck (handed a Best Actor Oscar by Brie Larsen in an awkward moment that
should’ve been avoided) is in somewhat of a poor frame of mind. Shovelling snow
and cleaning toilets for a living, he has two women clearly flirt with him that
he barely notices, pisses off another customer, and gets into a bar fight he
stupidly starts. All in the opening moments. So yeah…this guy’s got stuff going
on. As much as he mumbles way too much of his dialogue as usual, Affleck is
nonetheless well-cast as this rather ornery fellow who already has issues
before his older brother dies and he’s been left as the guardian of his 16
year-old nephew (Lucas Hedges), who is kind of a douchebag. I wouldn’t call it
funny exactly, as this is a tough sonofabitch of a film, but the completely
awkward uncle/nephew relationship here is priceless. Neither Affleck nor Hedges
has a clue how to relate to one another, and they don’t get all that much
better at it by the end, either. Hell, I don’t think Affleck manages to react
to anyone or anything in the normally accepted manner here. He’s not exactly
likeable, but he’s not uninteresting or unsympathetic, either as a lot of
people will actually relate to the guy. Flashbacks eventually reveal why he is
in the current mood he’s in to some extent. You also eventually come to some
understanding as to why his older brother has left the kid in his guardianship,
too. Sort of an overgrown kid, Affleck’s character fucked up, suffered a deeply
tragic loss he is responsible for yet unable to be punished by the law for…so
now he basically walks around punishing himself and hoping someone, anyone,
will give him the sentence he richly feels he deserves.
The supporting cast offers up some
interesting names and faces, with Josh Hamilton, Matthew Broderick, and Gretchen
Mol suggesting one has taken a ride in a DeLorean back to 1997. Oscar-nominated
Michelle Williams yet again shows that she’s far and away the most successful
and talented performer to have sprung from “Dawson’s Creek”, giving
another wonderful, sad supporting turn here. Her one big scene with Affleck is
truly heartbreaking, almost to the point of it being too much to handle. Kyle
Chandler is well-cast as the older brother with the dickey ticker, and gets
enough screen time to make it worthwhile. Meanwhile, as much as Gretchen Mol is
the same unimpressive ‘It girl who never had and still doesn’t have it’, a sequence involving her now
God-bothering character having an awkward reunion with son Hedges does provide
yet more awkwardness in a film full of such scenes. It involves an interesting
appearance by a well-cast Matthew Broderick as her nerdy bible-bashing husband,
who is probably a decent guy but absolutely not a fan of the kid re-entering
his mother’s life. You almost want to turn away out of sheer awkwardness.
There’s definitely things I could
relate to here, whether it be experiences in my own life or simply thoughts and
fears I have as someone rapidly approaching middle age. Some of what goes on
here feels extremely and uncomfortably real, and let’s face it, clichés and
stereotypes come from reality to begin with, don’t they? It’s the most
taciturn, ornery sonofabitch of a film I’ve come across since “Nebraska”.
This film starts off with a fairly familiar set-up, but manages to come at it
from awkward and unique angles that still results in a story many will find
relatable and even moving. Excellent performances too, even if I’m not
convinced Casey Affleck won the Oscar more because it was a weak field than
actually truly deserving it. An Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay, I
just wish it wasn’t so initially clichéd, it would’ve made the film even
stronger than it is if Lonergan had found a new way to bring these characters
together.
Rating: B-
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