Kenneth Lonergan only directs about one movie a decade, but when he does, boy howdy. I remember watching his 2000 film You Can Count On Me when I was 15 years old, both my pre-frontal cortex and cinematic knowledge still years away from being fully developed, and thinking "damn, this is a good movie."
Lonergan is a master at detailing relationships. From Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo as estranged siblings in You Can Count On Me to Anna Paquin and J. Cameron-Smith's emotionally tumultuous mother-daughter relationship in Margaret (a film that, speaking of tumultuous, took years to make to the big screen), to Casey Affleck's and Lucas Hedges' playful, yet distant uncle-nephew relationship in Manchester by the Sea, I have rarely seen more realistic portrayals of family dynamics. And humane portrayals, even in the dark places Lonergan's films often go.
Manchester by the Sea is a masterpiece in spite of (or because of) its modesty. It's a film both cozy and tragic. It chronicles some of the worst life experiences a person can go through as well as the mundane annoyances of forgetting where you parked.
The film opens on the day-to-day life of Lee Chandler (played by the hotter, better Affleck brother), an intelligent, if taciturn, blue collar man who does janitorial and handy-man work for a few buildings in Quincy, near Boston. He lives in a one-bedroom home and gets into random bar fights after the working day is done.
One day Lee gets a call about his brother, Joe (played in flashbacks by Kyle Chandler), who has passed away suddenly. It's not a surprise, exactly, as Joe was diagnosed with congestive heart failure years before and everyone knew his heart would give out sooner or later. What *is* a surprise to Lee is that Joe makes Lee the official guardian of Patrick, Joe's son. Patrick (played by newcomer Lucas Hedges in a fantastic performance) is a popular 16 year old with a ton of friends and lot of shit going on in his life. When Uncle Lee comes to town and starts making noise about dragging Patrick back to Quincy with him, Patrick balks.
The real reason why Lee is hesitant to just move to Manchester is revealed in a long series of flashbacks (I'll talk about them below after a spoiler warning), and it truly is something that makes it impossible for Lee to live a normal life in Manchester. Much of the film deals with what one would consider the typical aftermath of the death of a family member: figuring out funeral arrangements, getting in touch with estranged relatives--just typical adult bullshit with an added sheen of depression on top. But the central tragedy of the story haunts the film like a shadow just out of the corner of your eye.
If my description of Manchester by the Sea makes it sound 1) boring and 2) depressing, well, it is both of those things but also not. Clocking in at 137 minutes, the film is definitely slow. But, personally, I never felt bored. The naturalistic interactions and dialogue make you feel like you're eavesdropping on someone's actual life instead of watching a *movie*. So even during slow scenes, there's a sense of--I don't want to say voyeurism--just that feeling of pleasure you sometimes get when you overhear someone's conversation in public. Fascination.
And yeah, the movie is a little depressing. But it's also surprisingly funny. Lee and Patrick's adorable bickering as the two figure out how to deal with one another is especially funny. Patrick is a popular, but sensitive kid who seems years more mature than his aloof uncle. Patrick calls bullshit where he sees it and does so in a way that's surprisingly (perhaps unrealistically) polite for a 16 year old.
Another random thing I loved about Manchester by the Sea is the soundtrack. Lonergan is a fan of classical music and he uses pieces from--I shit you not--Handel's Messiah in the movie. I feel like if it were any other director on the planet, using these pieces (specifically, "Pastoral Symphony" and "He Shall Feed His Flock Like a Shepherd") would be pretentious as fuck, but Lonergan pulls it off! It really works well with cinematic scenes of the cold ocean and snowy sidewalks of Manchester. It also helps that I really love Messiah.
So, before I get to the spoiler-y section below, I'll say that Manchester by the Sea is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It's not a movie you escape into. But it is really, really goddamn good.
Grade: A+
***
Spoilers below!
If you've seen the preview or the poster for Manchester by the Sea, you'll notice that Michelle Williams is one of the lead actresses. She plays Lee's ex-wife, Randi. The details of their marriage are revealed in a number of flashbacks. You first see Lee and Randi as a happy couple with three kids: two girls, one maybe 9 years old the other maybe 5 or so, and a little baby boy. Based on their modest home and youth, you figure Randi and Lee got married and started popping them out pretty young, but they seem happy despite Lee's love of having his buddies over to drink and play pool into the wee hours of the night.
After one such late-night gathering (Randi comes downstairs to tell the "pinheads" Lee is drinking with to shut the fuck up and go home--her kids are sleeping upstairs), Lee walks to the market to grab more beer and comes home to find his home engulfed in flames. Randi has been pulled to safety by firefighter...but the kids are gone. Three kids, dead, just like that.
During Lee's interview with the police, he explains that before he went on his beer run he started a fire in their fireplace. As he was walking to the market, he had a moment where he couldn't remember if he put a screen on the fireplace. He figured it was ok and kept going. That decision cost him his children. Lee is taken aback when the cops let him go. "It's not a crime to forget to put a screen on a fireplace" (I was a little surprised at this--wouldn't Lee at least be charged with involuntary manslaughter?). Lee actually seems angry at the fact that he won't be punished. Of course, he will be. The rest of his life will be punishment.
This backstory explains a number of things: Lee's quiet, boring life in Boston. Why a smart, attractive man isn't seeking more than janitorial work and bar fights. It explains why he can't move back to Manchester. Not only are the raw memories still there, he's also a pariah. He's the man who essentially killed his own kids. Randi has, in a way, moved on. She remarried and had another kid. But as a chance run-in with Lee confirms, you never truly move on from the kind of thing that ended their marriage.
This tragedy is almost Biblical in it's proportions. It actually reminds me of the novel I read and so deeply loved earlier this year, A Little Life, which chronicles tragedies so intense and baroque, they seem like something out of a dark fairytale. The author of A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara, said in an interview that she "wanted everything turned up a little too high" with regards to the violence--but also the love--in her novel. I get the feeling that Lonergan is going for a similar thing here. The loss Lee faces--at his own hands--is too much to bear. So he retreats into himself and becomes nothing. That is until he's forced to become something again--a man with responsibilities, a man who, despite everything, is really loved--or, at least, supported--by those around him.
And that, to me, is purpose of Manchester by the Sea: not to preach, not to entertain, but to reveal a slice of humanity and its most humane and most forgiving. The film ends with Lee and Patrick fishing together on the boat Joe passed down to Patrick. Life still isn't sunshine and roses, but Lee is given a real shot at redemption. Life goes on, despite the worst pain imaginable, and it's possible to not just survive, but to live for something.
As I said above, Manchester by the Sea is a really fucking good movie, and not because it's extraordinary but because it's ordinary. Not because it's epic, but because it's modest. Not because it's fantastical, but because it's real.
Grade: A+
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