Nominated for a 2017 Golden Globe Award, Manchester by the Sea, beautifully filmed and acted, was a hard film for me to watch. The story is about life after great tragedy and loss. Lee Chandler is a man who tragically lost his children in a fire and, with good reason, blames himself. He and his wife, Randi, played by Michelle Williams, divorce. The story shows how this severely traumatized man lives his life, holding in his grief and anger. What amazed me was how Casey Affleck, in the role of Lee Chandler, maintained a flat, dead expression in his everyday life. A life that was very impoverished and devoid of any enjoyment. His eyes always looked ready to cry, but were dry, red rimmed. His only expressions of grief were explosions of rage when he had had one too many drinks of beer.
And so, this leaden life as a janitor of a large apartment building continued until his brother, Joe, died of a heart condition. In his will, Joe made Lee, guardian of his seventeen year old son, Patrick until Patrick was twenty one. The first indication of the enormity of this task was the look of panic on Lee Chandler’s face when he read the will and understood that he was the legal guardian of his nephew. The details of Lee Chandler’s previous life were not revealed until then, details shown through Lee's very poignant and painful flashbacks. The next part of this story shows the relationship between Lee and Patrick. Patrick was established in his school and hockey community and loved his time on his dad’s fishing boat, but was confronting his own grief. Admittedly the foibles of a young male teenager added some comic relief to this powerful film.
Principles of blame, self-recrimination and survival run through Mancester by the Sea. This is not a ‘happy ending’ sort of story, but the ending satisfied the concerns of both Lee and his nephew Patrick, as well as the terms of Joe’s will. Make certain you bring tissues to this movie.
“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface
but connected in the deep.”
~ William James
Written and directed by: Kenneth Lonergan
Cast:
Casey Affleck Lee Chandler
Michelle Williams Randi (Lee Chandler’s wife)
Kyle Chandler Joe Chandler
Lucas Hedges teenage Patrick
Peter Harris young Patrick
Danae Nason Rachel (Patrick's mother)
Matthew Broderick Rachel’s second husband
Nominated for a 2017 Golden Globe Award, Manchester by the Sea, beautifully filmed and acted, was a hard film for me to watch. The story is about life after great tragedy and loss. Lee Chandler is a man who tragically lost his children in a fire and, with good reason, blames himself. He and his wife, Randi, played by Michelle Williams, divorce. The story shows how this severely traumatized man lives his life, holding in his grief and anger. What amazed me was how Casey Affleck, in the role of Lee Chandler, maintained a flat, dead expression in his everyday life. A life that was very impoverished and devoid of any enjoyment. His eyes always looked ready to cry, but were dry, red rimmed. His only expressions of grief were explosions of rage when he had had one too many drinks of beer. 
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