07 May 2017

"Manchester By The Sea"

The Amazon-produced 2016 film Manchester By The Sea finally arrived on Amazon Prime so we took a couple of hours to watch it. In many respects, it reminded me of Boyhood (reviewed here). Contemporary American lives painted in bleak, aimless, and depressing colors. Some have said it is the saddest movie they've ever seen. While it was dreary, I didn't find any of the characters in Manchester By The Sea sufficiently intriguing  to engage my sustained interest.

Even though I believe Denzel Washington's role as Troy Maxon in Fences (thoughts here) should have won the Academy Award, I can understand why Casey Affleck's performance as Lee Chandler won as Best Actor. Affleck's portrayal of a depressed, inarticulate introvert, whose drunken carelessness had caused the deaths of his three young children, was effective. Both Lee and his 17-year-old nephew (Patrick Chandler, played by Lucas Hedges) for whom he became guardian show progress over the course of the film but not enough to give me much hope for any truly happy futures.

Perhaps my lack of emotional engagement with Manchester By The Sea says more about me than the film. After all, lots of other folks thought the film excellent. In any event, now that it's available on Prime many more will be able to see it, and I can encourage anyone who is interested in a glimpse of "what makes America sad again" to take the time to watch it.

No comments:

Post a Comment