‘Manchester by the Sea’ is a front-runner for Oscar glory

Already being touted as one of the front-runners for Oscar glory, “Manchester by the Sea” is a powerful and moving film about grief. Its emotional impact is all the more remarkable considering just how quiet and understated so much of the film is.

Casey Affleck plays Lee Chandler, a down-on-his-luck handyman who mostly survives doing janitorial work around town. A divorced man of few words, Lee plugs along in life without much joy or exertion.

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But when his older brother dies of a heart attack, he’s suddenly thrust into a situation he seems especially ill-equipped to handle, the raising of his brother’s 16-year-old son Patrick.

Even as he does his best to do right by his nephew, Lee steadfastly refuses to consider moving back to his hometown of Manchester. And Patrick is equally steadfast about staying put.

“What’s in Boston? You’re a janitor,” he says. “You could do that anywhere, there’s plenty of toilets and clogged up drains around here.”

Lee and Patrick frequently square off against each other but they also, inevitably, grow closer. But only to a point.

Neither seems particularly well-equipped to deal with their emotional pain, so both are more than relieved to not have to talk about it.

Lee’s inner turmoil is ratcheted up further at his brother’s funeral when he runs into his ex-wife (played brilliantly by Michelle Williams.) Revealing flashbacks fill in crucial biographical gaps.

This has all the makings of a mawkish and sentimental tale but writer/director Kenneth Lonergan masterfully keeps the material in check. His script neatly balances his characters’ humor with their sense of remorse, and their natural reticence with their swirling emotions. There are no happy/sappy resolutions here, only real people getting by.

It goes without saying, I suppose, that we’re not all eloquent people, but there is an eloquence to all our lives, no matter how sad, and Lonergan captures that in “Manchester by the Sea.”

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