Manchester by the Sea

Die Szene am Kinderwagen ist echt heftig und realistisch, als ob sie gar nicht gespielt wäre. Eigentlich basiert der ganze Film darauf, dass er realistisch ist. Es ist ein ungewöhnlicher Besuch von einem Ort, seiner Atmosphäre, der Lebensweise; ein Einblick in die Privatsphäre und Intimität seiner Bewohner*innen. Zusammen mit der Hauptfigur erleben wir ein schreckliches Drama, ohne dass wir von den Autoren dazu aufgefordert werden, mit ihr zu sympathisieren. Außergewöhnliche Schauspielleistungen und eine perfekte Darstellung der Alltäglichkeit, die man in Filmen nicht so oft sieht (z. B. die ausgezeichnete, auf den ersten Blick überflüssige Szene mit dem Suchen des geparkten Autos). (22.03.2017)

This review contains minor spoilers. Manchester by the Sea is one of the most useful film simulators for living with a broken heart. You can either let tragedy paralyze you completely or you can maintain a certain detachment from it – as Lonergan does, and as the protagonists of Manchester by the Sea also try to do. The film does not restore the status quo or reassure us that everything will be all right again. The real catharsis and return to harmony captured in a few flashbacks do not come, just as deliverance and at least some form of satisfaction after a similar tragedy may never come in real life. This is not the only departure from the conventions of American family melodramas, which usually offer simple solutions to similar dilemmas. The tragedy is not caused by fate, against which one can do nothing, but by human error; the characters are not rendered in black-and-white and, unlike the protagonists of ordinary melodramas, they are largely unable to externalise their emotions. Rather, their emotions are expressed for them through flashbacks and solemn music, which at the same time make us aware of the constant (and paradoxical) presence of loss, of an empty place (even more painful on second viewing are the mentions of the children in the dialogue – the man who repairs the dripping faucet for Lee speaks about his sister and her children; the doctor reports that the nurse Bethany has just given birth to twin girls). Like the female protagonist of Lonergan’s previous film, Patrick and Lee mainly have to learn to overcome the communication barrier and to find adequate words to describe the misfortune that they have endured (as, for example, the man whose boiler Lee repairs at the end has no problem with it and who uninhibitedly launches into a story about his father’s death). Unlike Lisa, however, they do not act melodramatically, despite the melodramatic potential of the situations in which they find themselves. Conversely, even the scenes that are shot with operatic exaggeration are disrupted by their unwillingness to let themselves be fully overcome by grief (Patrick’s ringing phone during the memorial service). People die, but the lives of those they leave behind go on. Manchester by the Sea, a melodrama that doesn’t want to be a melodrama, is thus for me not only a superbly written and acted drama about insurmountable loss, but also a film that is both formalistically and stylistically inspiring. 85% (10.02.2017)

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)

Manchester-by-the-Sea isn’t really a village that I would like to visit, even though I normally like similar areas and I actively seek them out. But what can you do with people who look as if they had been taking Xanax for two years, surviving in their strange vacuum of nothingness. Well, and Casey Affleck is rooted in this world, and probably wants to get an Oscar nomination because he is the weirdest of the weirdest and in some scenes he literally jumps between emotions like a flea from one hair to another. It’s a pity, as under diferrent circumstances this film wouldn’t be bad. But its endless length and the strange behavior of the characters doesn’t simply make for a good movie and the few interesting scenes unfortunately can’t save the movie. (21.02.2017)

Lonergan ist wiederum ein hervorragende Drehbuchautor. Die Komposition der Sache an sich, der Arbeit mit dem Alltäglichen, mit den sparsam geführten Dialogen, mit dem, was aus der Nähe zu zeigen ist, gegenteils was wiederum aus der Ferne mit einem Hinweis zu beobachten ist - einfach meisterhaft. Regietechnisch hat der Streifen etwas mit dem übertriebenen zeremoniellen Charakter diverser Momente zu kämpfen, wo Lonergan sich auf einmal des traurig anmutenden Händels und verlangsamender Szenen bedient. Doch der Film verliert niemals den Boden unter den Füßen, wobei seine konzentrierte und lakonische Führung der Schauspieler mitsamt des Beobachtens einer Routine der ausklingenden (jedoch immer noch präsenten) Tragödie in den besten Momenten extrem stark wirkt. Mancheseter By the Sea neigt zwar an allen Ecken und Enden die Gelegenheit dazu, zum Pathetischen hin abzurutschen, jedoch macht es dieser Streifen nie. Er wirkt bescheiden, obwohl sich hinter der Hauptfigur ein nahezu antikes Drama verbirgt, hinter welchem wir klar eine spezifische Drehbuchkonzeption vermerken können. Doch Lonergan gelingt es, das ganze auszuhalten. Er missbraucht die Miserie nicht, wobei die Chemie zwischen Affleck, Hedges und den Nebenrollen bei jeder einzelnen Aufnahme zu spüren ist. Ein Film über die nur allzu schwere Kunst zu trauern, über die Unfähigkeit, Schläge zu kassieren und dorthin zurückzukehren, wo man die Vergangenheit nicht vergessen kann. Ich freue mich darauf, diesen Film nochmals zu sehen, der auf jeden Fall seit Boyhood der imposanteste amerikanische Indiefilm ist. (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. (03.02.2017)

A drama that does not hold your hand, forces you to read between the lines, and does so on a canvas over two hours long that does not begin with careless and ordinary dialogues full of chatter. Casey Affleck has found the role of his life, Michelle Williams shines even in a smaller space, and Kenneth Lonergan has created a drama that is almost too absolute and overwhelming to be heartfelt. Still, I wish him all the success in the awards season. (02.02.2017)

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)

With exaggeration and in big quotation marks it’s Nocturnal Animals for the lower middle-class or country people. It's slow, weaving and painful (in the spirit of Eastwood's films), playing out several plot levels and exposing painful life events and decisions, or the inability to cope with them, but it is more oversimplified and easier to read. The most interesting thing about it is that it is paradoxically so direct and non-cinematic, because half of the scenes are without music and with so much authenticity and energy that it feels like your next-door neighbour is living the story. A cinematic event, no doubt, just not for everyone and it will have to mature a bit more, but a must-see for film scholars. (04.02.2017)

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)

Diese Beziehungs-Familien-Dramen sind genau meins, und obwohl ich nicht einmal die Hälfte der nominierten Filme gesehen habe, ist dies mein Oscar-Favorit, und nach reiflicher Überlegung nicht nur in der Kategorie Film, sondern auch Schauspieler. Als ich nämlich über die Figur des Lee Chandler nachdachte, wurde ich mir bewusst, dass Affleck ihn einfach nur toll spielt, dass die Figur selbst über lange Strecken des Films nicht gefiel und mir unangenehm und unsympathisch war, ist völlig nebensächlich, Denzel hat schon genügend Oscars, Andrew kann noch warten Ryan bekommt hundertprozentig irgendwann mal einen und Viggo sofort. Abschließend möchte ich noch die wunderschöne Musik hervorheben. (23.02.2017)

A terribly basic film about the insurmountability of trauma and the voluntary exchange of life for existence against the backdrop of a frozen seaside town where the winter is so unkind that you don't meet anyone on the street and everyone lives their lives in the bedrooms, living rooms, and basements of their houses as best they can. The civility, the perfectly written and acted characters, the excellent and cohesive script where everything fits together so beautifully, all make the film a masterpiece. However, the editing is at times paced differently than I would have liked, and the crucial flashback scene intercut with Affleck squirming in the lawyer's chair strikes me as a terrible formalist misstep. (29.03.2020)

I can’t believe how much I enjoyed this look into the life of a man who causes irreparable damage to his loved ones, and, given the lack of adequate punishment, gives himself a life sentence. Unlike his brother, Casey Affleck has never annoyed me because he knows how to act, and this film was another proof of that. It had everything I look for in a good film. What’s more, the filmmakers didn’t resort to a cheap play on emotions, so I have nothing to complain about. I could hardly believe that the film's running time was 137 minutes. An excellent drama that I'll gladly watch again. (16.04.2017)

Casey Affleck has the disadvantage that no matter how hard he tries, he just won't get rid of that bored and featureless expression, which might also be the reason why he went for this movie. And good thing he did. His acting style is perfect for it. In this case, there is no need for the actor to gesture too much to convey emotions. All it takes is to just let the audience absorb what the excellent script has to offer. A standard Oscar-winning independent drama that will hit you hard. I completely empathized with the main character, because after such tragic events, who wouldn't turn into an empty husk incapable of feeling anything at all? Given this context, Affleck gives an Oscar-winning performance. Finally, let me just add what probably everyone has already mentioned – the wrong choice of a soundtrack in some scenes where the director wanted to make the movie really poignant, but the story itself would probably feel even more emotional without all that classical music. If you like slow-paced independent dramas with, you’re in for a real treat. (13.02.2017)