Review of Manchester by the Sea (2016) by Stuart M — 08 Feb 2017

Superb film, the best I've seen since 'Room'. . And many similarities there, the lack of reliance on special effects, the way they quickly make you care about the characters. the little snippets of wit amongst the misery, the acknowledgment that no life is all tragedy or all comedy or all drama but a mixture of the three, sometimes even at the same time.

Emotion is best conveyed in film when we don't need everything explained to us but is left for us to work out through the touch of a shoulder, the way someone is walking, the silence of words unable to be said, the pain of a past etched on a face.

And this film has all of that in shedloads. Casey Affleck is outstanding in this taking us from comedy miseryarse at the start through any number of layers of his character, each with utter sincerity and believablity.

Lucas Hedges brings warmth and humour to what could otherwise have been a cardboard 'irritating teenager' character, and is surely going to be a big star of the future. Who knows how it will do at the Oscars, but it's certainly won a 'Stuart'.