Forget
La La Land. The best film of this
year, which ought to clean up at the 89th Academy Awards three weeks
today, is Manchester by the Sea (Figure
102.1), directed by Kenneth Lonergan.
Figure
102.1: Six Academy Award nominations for ‘Manchester’ http://manchesterbytheseathemovie.com
Copyright © 2016 Amazon Studios
The
main character is Lee Chandler, played by Casey Affleck, a dogsbody janitor who
ekes out an anonymous living in a drab Boston suburb. On hearing that his
brother is seriously ill, Lee returns to his hometown – Manchester, Massachusetts
– but his brother dies just before he arrives.
Lee
is stunned to learn that he has been given custody of his brother’s 16-year-old
son. The rest of the film centres on this unscripted new relationship which,
despite profound mutual affection, neither of them finds ideal. As the odd
couple stumble through the tedious post-mortem drag of funeral arrangements and
financial bureaucracy, it becomes clear (with a deafening bang) why Lee had
left Manchester in the first place. It is a shock that I cannot bring myself to
dwell on for long enough even to write a paragraph.
Only
when the viewer learns of this unspeakable tragedy can he comprehend Lee’s reticent
and impenetrable persona. His emotions very rarely surface (Figure 102.2). This
is not because they do not exist, but rather that Lee is fighting a perpetual
battle in his own head to keep them beneath. This is how he
survives. His only unscripted outbursts come when he gets drunk. If they came
out with his mind fully alert, the pain would return and floor him more brutally
than could any bunch of rough-ass brawlers in a bar.
Figure
102.2: Casey Affleck as ‘Lee’
Copyright
© 2017 NYREV Inc.
Affleck’s
portrayal is almost unbelievably thoughtful. Every inconvenience and awkward
encounter – and there are plenty – is met by the attitude, ‘OK, emotions behind bars, and here we go again.’ It is like
watching a weary old man lock a couple of fierce dogs in a back room before he dare open his front door to a visitor. With everyone he is forced to confront, the
same strategy plays out: he opens the door but allows no one in. Hospital
doctors, funeral directors, old friends, and flirty women who all but throw themselves
at him, are met with empty eyes and an enigma writ large. His self-control is almost
painful to watch.
When
Lee eventually comes face-to-face with his (equally traumatized) ex-wife, he
responds to her tears by insisting, ‘There’s
nothing there.’ I suspected that really there was, but he convinces himself
that his feelings are extinct rather than merely dormant. He knows that an
honest eruption might well finish him off.
The
final scene is captured with immense sympathy. As his nephew steers the family
boat off the Manchester coast, Lee is perched at the back, gazing in silence upon
his beloved seascape. He appreciates that this is as good, and as peaceful, as it will ever get, so he makes the best of it.
In
a 21st-century cinematic world of mindless sci-fi and deus-ex-machina fantasy, drama replaced
by melodrama, and emotional incontinence as a given, Manchester by the Sea is a film of understatement and understanding
(Figure 102.3), made all the more poignant by the knowledge that there are
countless Lee Chandlers out there, making their way in the world with almost
every facet hidden from sight.
Figure
102.3: Film of the year
Copyright
© 2017 Light Cinemas
Copyright
© 2017 Paul Spradbery
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