Manchester by the Sea is about a man who has to return to his home town where dark memories lie, to look after his nephew after his brother dies.
Casey Affleck is great here. Watching a film like Gone Baby Gone you can see that Affleck is a good actor, but he is able to show his full potential. I have often thought of Casey as the better actor of the Affleck brothers, not that Ben's a bad actor, but I feel like Casey has more range. It is a performance heavy film, with Lucas Hedges giving a good performance as Affleck's nephew, and Michelle Williams is excellent in a small supporting role.
I haven't seen Kenneth Lonergan's other films or any of his stage work. The dialogue is wonderful and feels natural. There's not much of a story and is more of a look into peoples lives, similar to Boyhood and Moonlight(more on that when I get to mid-January). If you like seeing character arcs as opposed to twists then this is for you.
However, in some scenes there are uses of music which feel like they are over imposing and didn't add to the emotional nature of the scenes the way Lonergan, presumably, wanted them to.
In short: MbtS is a well written and acted character study.
No comments:
Post a Comment