96% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe
Watch it if you: Are in the mood for a heavy drama (and trust me, you need to be in the mood for this); Still want to laugh a little
Lee Chandler is a sombre and disagreeable man working a dead-end job as a handyman for a Boston apartment. One day, he needs to return to his hometown of Manchester-by-the-sea, where his brother has recently passed. As he learns that he has been appointed guardian for his teenage nephew, he struggles with the sudden change of routine, all while trying to overcome his own tragic past.
I think this film was a great piece of storytelling without being the overly dramatic Oscar-bait movie I was expecting. It was still dramatic, and it was still very Oscar-esque in some parts, but for the most part it felt like a very realistic portrayal of depression, anxiety, trauma, and the struggle to recover from all of these.
The film was surprisingly quite funny, because life is funny. And awkward. And life doesn't stop being funny or awkward just because one person gets depression. People continue to act the way they always have acted, regardless of whether or not you are an arsehole because you are depressed. And I really liked all the scenes in here that portrayed that. Little things like extras' little conversations in the background, or moments where not everything is so perfectly played out because life is filled with little things that annoy you even though they aren't such a big deal. They could have easily made this like a typical movie where they only include things that are necessary, but sometimes you just won't be able to find certain things in your office, or you just won't for the life of you be able to wheel someone into a van properly. And then what do you do, do you just watch them continue struggling? Do you try and help them even though you're not qualified or experienced enough and don't want to mess up more than you already have? What do you do? It's an awkward, albeit funny, situation to be in.
And there are a lot of other subtle things that this film does. Subtle things the main character does, like intently keeping an eye on the microwave, help to flesh out a stoic character more so than dialogue could. And when dialogue is used, it's used sparingly, but efficiently; just a few words could speak miles in a this film.
And this subtlety means that the movie doesn't spoon-feed things to you. It reveals the story to you in stages, bit by bit, ever so slowly, and then suddenly all at once. At first, you know this guy is an arsehole. Then you realise that something's a bit off, but you don't know what. Then you realise that something's really off. And then you realise, and it all makes sense.
The first part of the movie may be a bit jarring because of this, because the past is told in really abrupt stages of flashbacks, but as the story progresses, it unfolds in a way that is more understandable.
The acting in this is really great. Casey Affleck is phenomenal in this. His acting is so subtle, I never felt that he overacted any scene. He was able to realistically portray someone so consumed by grief and depression but who just needs to continue through life. As I said before, you first see him as an arsehole, and then you later realise that this is his way of being depressed; he chooses to be miserable, he chooses that he does not deserve happiness, and he actively avoids anything that could possibly make him happy again. It really is heartbreaking.
I'm not sure why Michelle Williams is on the poster. I mean, there is one scene in this film where she is fantastic in (and I was blubbering like a baby; doesn't help that I can't get the Blue Valentine Michelle Williams out of my head), but she's really only in about four scenes in total and sort of disappears for the rest of the movie.
In actuality I think Lucas Hedges, who plays Lee's nephew, should be talked of more, because he did a pretty great job holding his own alongside Casey Affleck. It was really interesting to see these two characters side by side, because they showed the clear difference in the different manifestations of grief, and their character arcs seemed so natural and real.
Apart from that, Kyle Chandler was great as Lee's loving and protective brother, and even Matthew Broderick makes an appearance! That was a bit weird because the last thing I saw of him was Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which he was super cute in and now he's old and weird and super Christian in this film instead.
This movie is a bit longer, at 2 hours and 17 minutes, and it does feel quite long, and for that it would be hard to rewatch even though I think it does deserve one, sometime in the distant future.
This is because sometimes it feel a bit slow, but that just adds to the sense of realism it creates.
Another downside was that I sometimes felt like the score was very overwhelming. It sometimes felt a bit jarring and a bit too heavy for me.
But apart from that, this is a great movie to watch. It's heartbreaking and tragic, but it's also very realistic and very funny too. It's a great portrayal of depression and grief, and a great example that sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just cannot overcome your demons. Sometimes there is no way out, sometimes there is no happy ending. But sometimes, things do work out, just not the way you expect them to. And that's okay.
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