Review of Manchester by the Sea (2016) by Erwin T — 29 Apr 2017

I don't enjoy monotonous movies, but I do love character studies. Confusingly for me, Manchester by the Sea is a monotonous character study. And so I had to forcefully endure the monotony for the first few minutes of the movie to get completely immersed in the drama.

But once immersed, it became effortlessly easy to see that Casey Affleck is the main source of wonderment. His character, Lee, constantly looks like he's thinking of something terribly stressful. As we see him trudge through his challenges, we wonder what sorts of submerged emotions he is actually experiencing, and whether or not he will explode.

We rarely see explicit action that substantiate Lee's thoughts, but through just a handful of short yet powerful scenes, the heart-rending intricacies of the character is strikingly illustrated to maximum effect.

Such would not be possible without Affleck's sublime performance.