Comment on Kenneth Lonergan makes a triumphant return with “Manchester By the Sea”

Kenneth Lonergan makes a triumphant return with “Manchester By the Sea”

By Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post There’s an early scene in Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester By the Sea,” a grief-drenched drama starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams, that effectively announces to viewers that the ensuing movie won’t hew to the usual rules of multiplex manipulation: Affleck’s character, a Boston handyman named Lee Chandler, has received an emergency call to travel to his titular home town, where he proceeds directly to the hospital where someone close to him has died. The scene in question, during which Lee consults with a doctor and a nurse during a conversation in a hallway, unfolds in real time, as he processes the most mundane details of death – logistics, lists, arrangements – with hushed, workmanlike focus. It’s the kind of sequence that would be quickly excised in most movies, to get to what most filmmakers assume the audience wants, in the form of a big speech or juicy crying scene.

 

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