Manchester by the Sea

Formal austerity, characters that are difficult to penetrate and even more difficult to leave, the impossibility of communication and escape from one's own past, from one's own life. An excellently constructed script that, by gradually revealing the past, allows us to slowly become attached to the main character, with whom we also seem to be searching for a glimmer of hope in the bleak psychological darkness. Casey Affleck's performance is once again chillingly convincing and depressing, but the young Hedges or, for those few minutes, the mesmerizing Michelle Williams are not far behind. To my complete satisfaction, it lacks a slightly steadier pace, and at times I didn't entirely agree with the onslaught of the pervasive depression that tests the flow of tear ducts at the expense of maintaining pure authenticity. That said, the impression is very intense and the ending cinematically beautiful, life is a ungrateful bitch and Lonergan has an apt balladic way of telling it. 80% (28/02/2017)

Lonergan is an amazing screenwriter. The compositionality of the film, the work with ordinariness, with economical dialogues, with what is to be shown up close, or what to observe from a distance through a hint - masterful. The directing struggles a bit with the exaggerated ceremony of selected moments, when Lonergan suddenly helps himself with a mournful Händel and decelerators. But he never takes its feet out from under it, in the best moments his focused and laconic leadership of the actors and watching the routine of the fading (and still present) tragedy is extremely strong. Manchester by the Sea has the ability to constantly slide toward pathos, but it never does so. It feels sparing, despite the fact that behind the main character is a drama almost ancient, behind which we can clearly perceive the script design. But Lonergan can handle it. He does not abuse misery, and the chemistry between Affleck, Hedges and the supporting characters is completely physically perceptible in every shot. A film about the difficult art of mourning, about the inability to accept wounds and return to where one cannot forget the past. I look forward to watching it again, and it’s the most impressive American indie since Boyhood. (27/01/2017)

Lonergan is a slightly better screenwriter than a director and a way better director than a man with a feeling for choosing music. One of the best written and performed "classic American small - town dramas about unsolvable skeletons in closets" in recent years scores an own goal good with cheap targeted selection of classical string music. It is overused here and the most overplayed songs were chosen. It´s fishing for emotions, full of pathos, ingratiating and cheap solution. Which is in stark contrast to everything else, because Manchester does not offer anything that even remotely associated with pathos (let alone fishing for emotions) (and there are sequences that would clearly call for it) and there are not cheap ways out. As if the author did not believe that his own theme, actors he chose and dialogues he wrote, which phenomenally work with the unspoken "between the lines", will be enough for an emotionally overwhelming subtle drama, so he decided to make 100 % sure it happens but in a cheapest possible way. And it unnecessarily devalues an otherwise impressive experience. (02/02/2017)

A painful punch right to the heart. A film whose author must be on the same frequency as I, because I understood every scene. Everything was in its place, everything made sense. It’s been a long time since I felt 137 minutes passing so fast, even though on paper they should have dragged (and judging by the comments, they did drag for many people). (03/02/2017)

A film about human pain, guilt, failure, and the attempt to somehow cope with it all. It is pleasantly and cleverly cast, with Casey Affleck suiting his role as if Lonergan had written it specifically for him. I haven't seen enough of him to confidently say that he normally acts brilliantly, or if it was just a great casting choice. Unfortunately, Manchester by the Sea doesn't score as high with me as I expected because it only works partially. My attention was unilaterally drawn from the beginning to the end by Lee Chandler, while the director wanted to build the film on the relationship and confrontation between the uncle and nephew. However, Patrick as a teenager was not interesting to me, unfortunately. The film worked perfectly until Lee became a mystery to me, and I didn't understand all of the bitterness, emotional instability, and inaccessibility of his personality. The revelation should have come to me in the end. Nevertheless, I understand why there is so much talk about the film and why it is considered worthy of an Oscar nomination. Overall impression: 65%. (09/04/2017)