Location is everything in Kenneth Lonergan's wonderful film, Manchester by the Sea. Coastal towns of eastern Massachusetts play an important supporting character in this story of family, tragedy, and forgiveness. I've only lived in Massachusetts for three and one half years so I'm no expert, but I looked at the road signs to see if I had ever drove to any of the places they were driving on the north shore. I had. I also laughed as I recalled hearing similar types of conversations as I rode through Andrew station in Southie on the T. There are many great movies that Massachusetts plays a character, and Manchester by the Sea will go down as one of them.
But what about the human characters and the story? Most everything about the film is great, and it is certainly one of the best films of 2016. Casey Affleck appears in most every scene of the film as the quietly internal janitor Lee, who moves from the south shore to the north shore after a death in the family. Despite all that is revealed about Lee's past and present in Manchester, Affleck never overplays any of it. In less capable hands it could have been a role of scenery chewing.
Kenneth Lonergan has written a wonderful screenplay and perhaps does not get enough credit for the quiet choices he made for the film and the way he weaves present and past together. Michelle Williams, as usual is also quite wonderful and if she had many one more big scene, she would have a better chance of finally being an Oscar winner. Her final big scene is a classic heartbreaker though. While both of those actors are getting most of the talk, I have to say that the performance of Lucas Hedges as Lee's nephew was the most surprising and exciting one. He brings his character from wise cracker to genuinely sensitive and loving in one fell swoop. I am really looking forward to see what he does next. Hopefully Hollywood has room for a very talented pasty ginger!
I will admit that Manchester by the Sea is nearly a perfect movie, but a couple things did underwhelm me. The score in the film is used Too much and really didn't match the emotion or the setting of what was happening in the scene. I also thought Hedge's character's mother was a very underwritten part for the amount of screentime she received. I wonder if that would have come off differently with a different actress. But those are minor quibbles! Manchester by the Sea does film, storytelling, performing, and of course Massachusetts proud.
Manchester by the Sea gets 9 out of 10 from me, and as an added bonus here are some of my favorite films with Massachusetts as a supporting character. I only chose ones that I really liked a lot! They are in no particular order!
The Conjuring
The Crucible (1996)
One Crazy Summer
Little Women (1994)
With Honors
The Departed
Fever Pitch
Good Will Hunting
Mystic River
The Social Network
Spotlight
And, of course, Gone Baby Gone since parts of it were in my neighborhood and one part in particular is about a hundred steps away from my front door.
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