Manchester by the Sea [Review by CLGJr]

Boston doesn’t enjoy the same vaunted place in film history as its metro siblings New York and Los Angeles. Hell, even Chicago occupies more reel estate (trademark!), thanks to legends like John Hughes and Roger Ebert. These are the cities with Bright Lights, Bacchanalia, and Brat Packers. But the Hub has quietly been staking its claim for attention. “The Departed.” “Mystic River.” “Gone Baby Gone.” (We will not utter this title.) And the one to rule them all: “Good Will Hunting.” Matt Damon and Ben Affleck made Beantown sexy on the silver screen, won an Oscar for their writing efforts, and still have everyone asking about their preferences over red fruit.

Nevertheless, all of these movies seem to use Boston as a convenient plot device. Actors get to try on their best Southie timbre. Filmmakers can traffic in grittiness without expensive production design. Ok, fine. “Good Will Hunting” wouldn’t exist without two particular safety schools in Cambridge. Those institutions don’t compare to the role that Eastern Massachusetts plays in “Manchester by the Sea.” Kenneth Lonnergan’s third offering requires the setting. It suffuses every fiber of the 137-minute run time. Finally, someone has produced a picture worthy of the location, and it contains some of the year’s best performances.

Casey Affleck anchors the cast in a turn that might finally lay to rest the idea that his elder brother is the better actor. Affleck plays Lee Chandler, a middle-aged man-child who wears misfortune like a comfort blanket. A surprisingly hilarious opening montage details his work as an apartment custodian in Quincy. Every insult, every sad sack story, every sexual proposition bounces off Lee. He is a human being in name only who soaks his pain in beer with a chaser of fisticuffs. The sudden death of his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler, keeping his last name and too many traces of the Texas twang) sends Lee hurrying back to Manchester and a world he long left behind.

Lee encounters all the usual duties of the bereaved, but one was decidedly not a part of the plan. Joe has left behind a teenage son, Patrick (an outstanding Lucas Hedges). The decedent’s will names Lee as his nephew’s guardian. It also presumes that Lee will move back to Manchester to take care of the boy. The only problem is that he exiled himself from the town’s picturesque views on account of a horrific family tragedy. It’s the reason townsfolk refer to him as “The Lee Chandler” when they spot him in old haunts. Lonnergan’s script fills in that background with scenes that meld the present and past with seamless unity. These aren’t maudlin flashbacks. They’re deeply insightful illustrations of Joe’s brotherly affection, Patrick’s youthful innocence, and Lee’s domestic tranquility with his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams). No one exudes tough familial love on screen better than Coach Taylor, and we understand from their relationship why Lee would even dare consider raising Patrick.

Lee is not the avuncular type, though. He gives Patrick more latitude than one assumes his father did, particularly with female sleepovers. They match profane epithets and insults beat for beat in service of frequent comic relief. Hedges deserves the lion’s share of the credit here. I don’t know if he has the range to stand out in another film, but he more than holds his own against the veteran Affleck. The two men are emotional ions; they come together and repel each other depending on their charges each day.

Like its potential awards rival, “Moonlight,” “Manchester” is short on events and long on characterization. It summons the salty sea breezes of the coastline between Salem and Gloucester. The magisterial, wintry color scheme perfectly mirrors Lee’s dolorous soul. If there are complaints to be lodged, they are few. The film could be leaner. We would still know Manchester’s inhabitants well, just without unnecessary asides. Keep the scene with Patrick’s estranged mother, Elise (Gretchen Mol), who has taken up with an uber-Christian fiancé in Connecticut. (I won’t spoil the perfect cameo casting.) Drop the rebuffed flirtations of a thirsty single mom and other inessential slices of life. Lonnergan also affords too little screen time to the transcendent Williams. A raw, tear-stained encounter between Randi and Lee in the denouement might earn her an overdue Best Supporting Actress statue.

“Manchester by the Sea” is a complicated picture, one that switches gears between despondency and hilarity as lightly as the seagulls floating above the town. Its achievement lies in telling an original story that couldn’t exist anywhere else. It honors its characters and their hometown, thereby earning its title. It’s wicked smaht filmmaking that deserves your attention.

CLGJr Verdict: An excellent, though slightly imperfect, entry into the Boston canon. Dazzling main performances and the incomparable location shots make for one of 2016’s most affecting dramas.    

Manchester by the Sea opened Friday November 18.

Never miss a review — sign up for email updates to the right, or like The Parsing Haus on Facebook!