{"id":163296,"date":"2016-11-16T21:05:43","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T04:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/?p=163296"},"modified":"2016-11-16T07:31:04","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T14:31:04","slug":"manchester-by-the-sea-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2016\/11\/16\/manchester-by-the-sea-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester By The Sea Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA<\/a><\/strong>
\nAmazon Studios\/Roadside Attractions<\/strong>
\nReviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya<\/strong>
\nGrade: B+<\/strong>
\nDirector:\u00a0 Kenneth Lonergan<\/strong>
\nWritten by: Kenneth Lonergan<\/strong>
\nCast: Casey Affleck<\/a>, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler, Gretchen Mol, C.J. Wilson<\/strong>
\nScreened at: Dolby24, NYC, 10\/13\/16<\/strong>
\nOpens: November 18, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grand opera and soap opera both thrive on melodrama, but you don\u2019t go to grand opera for the sometimes absurd, melodramatic plots, and you don\u2019t consider soap opera anything but a contrived, artificial look at life.\u00a0 Nuance is the key to a solid story. When a tale can be looked on as authentic, as reflecting real life, there\u2019s nothing wrong with melodrama.\u00a0 Such is the case for Kenneth Lonergan\u2019s \u201cManchester by the Sea,\u201d filmed in part in that Massachusetts village, the rest in other locations in that state including Beverly, Gloucester, Lynn and Salem.\u00a0 These towns are frequented by tourists during the warm seasons.\u00a0 But Lonergan is more interested in the sorts of people who live there all year and discovers that they do indeed have the accent of that New England region, dropped the \u201cr\u201d sound as in \u201cPack your cah in the Hahvod Yahd.\u201d Nobody in \u201cManchester by the Sea\u201d is recognizably a Harvard grad, however, but the folks therein are acquainted with tragedy just as are those of us who are highly educated.<\/p>\n

\u201cManchester by the Sea\u201d is somewhat like Lonergan\u2019s previous entry, \u201cMargaret,\u201d which deals with a young woman\u2019s witnessing a bus accident and viewing the aftermath, considering whether the tragedy was really an accident.\u00a0 Like \u201cThe Sweet Hereafter,\u201d which is Atom Egoyan\u2019s look at a bus crash and its effects of a lawyer\u2019s view on a town, \u201cManchester by the Sea\u201d studies a tragedy which bears mainly on an extended family.\u00a0 The particular misfortune comes out about a third of the way into the film, a movie which herky-jerky scatters scenes from the past with those of the present, and which exhibits a cataclysm which should not be revealed in a review.\u00a0 The deadly action affects, among others, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) and Patrick Chandler (Lucas Hedges), the sixteen-year-old for whom he takes custody after the death of the teenager\u2019s father Joe Chandler (Kyle Chandler).\u00a0 The writer-director\u2019s aim is to show that both Lee and his nephew Patrick become healed during their time together, suggesting that we often need others particularly those who share serious misfortune, to get back to normal living.<\/p>\n

Because of his role in the disaster, Lee Chandler has become taciturn, frequently fighting in bars for little apparent reason, and going through the beginning of middle age as a janitor-handyman in Boston.\u00a0 Among the humorous incidents brought in by Lonergan in the early scenes are Lee\u2019s relationships with at least one irritating person (he tells her off), though he also is the object of one-sided conversations from tenants for whom he does simply plumbing.\u00a0 When he discovers that his newly departed uncle wants him to be young Patrick\u2019s guardian, he reluctantly takes on the job, discovering that the sixteen-year-old is horny to nobody\u2019s surprise and has two girlfriends.\u00a0 He also takes up with his separated wife Randi (Michelle Williams), who had apparently driven him away because of Lee\u2019s role in the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Lonergan employs background music from the classical to the blues while exhibiting the New England area as freezing, covered with snow, and enveloped by gray skies.\u00a0 It might be tempting to bring out the sun when a \u201ccure\u201d is effected, a cure credibly brought on through the conversations of the excellent ensemble led by Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, and especially Casey Affleck in his best performance since \u201cThe Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unrated.\u00a0 137 minutes.\u00a0 \u00a9 Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online<\/strong><\/p>\n

Story \u2013 B+<\/strong>
\nActing \u2013 A-<\/strong>
\nTechnical \u2013 B+<\/strong>
\nOverall \u2013 B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

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