Manchester By The Sea

Ugh it was a long old slog, watching this movie. I did walk out of the screening thinking, "Well, that's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back".

The story follows Lee (Casey Affleck) who has to take care of his teenage nephew after his brother dies. He lives a very solitary life, working as a janitor and being hit on by multiple women to which he responds with a blank stare. This happens a lot. He's such a morose, sombre character and throughout the movie it becomes clear why as something horrific happened to his family some years before. Although I can appreciate the sadness of the situation, the movie just didn't really go anywhere. I was expecting him to come around and find a way out of the fog he was under the whole time but it just didn't happen. I guess in a way it's more realistic that way but personally I don't think it makes for great viewing. I'd heard that it was an emotional watch and I expected to get a little teary, but it was more of a heavy depressed feeling that lingered over the whole thing. It was basically 2 hours of watching someone's miserable life.

The main thing though - it was so painfully slow; there were so many long pauses and scenes where characters would just stare at objects or into space. A lot of the lines appeared to be ad-libbed which for me just made things a bit awkward to watch. Also the operatic soundtrack didn't work for me; I found it quite jarring and it didn't fit with the subject matter or style of the movie.

I know Casey Affleck had been nominated for awards for his performance but I don't think it was much of a performance because he was the same throughout the whole movie; a shell of a man, wandering around like a zombie, barely interacting with anyone. I do agree it was probably a more realistic performance of grief and guilt, but I think I just wanted to feel a bit more from it.

What a complete contrast to La La Land yesterday!

My rating: 2/5 ★