Manchester By the Sea, it must be said, is a tough sell. Its premise – man returns home to look after his dead brother’s son – doesn’t exactly scream good times. Its poster, full of muted blues and haunted expressions, further cements that suggestion. It’s written and directed by a man, Kenneth Lonergan, whose last film, Margaret, was a sprawling and hugely divisive work that wallowed in development hell for half a decade and then flopped badly when it eventually limped into cinemas. Even the many rave reviews afforded to the film sound like backhanded compliments, containing adjectives likely to make most cinemagoers run a mile: heartbreaking, raw, devastating. And, in truth, Manchester By the Sea does conform to those descriptions. It is achingly raw and heartbreaking, and it will most likely devastate you. If that sounds like something you’d rather not experience, then it’s probably best to turn away now. But if you are able to stomach it, this film proves immensely rewarding. Casey Affleck stars as Lee, a withdrawn handyman who reluctantly returns to his Massachusetts home town to take care of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges), after the boy’s father (Kyle Chandler, seen only in flashback) dies suddenly. It’s a task fraught with jeopardy: not only does he have to deal with the challenges of caring for an emotionally raw teenage boy, but returning home means reckoning with the traumatic incident that forced him to leave in the first place. Even now, a month after release, it…more detail
