Manchester by the Sea

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Manchester by the Sea (2016), written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, deals with the impact of the traumatic loss of a family’s children and how that tragedy disrupts any connection to others.

The film begins in the coastal community of Manchester-by-the Sea in the past with Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck, who received the Best Actor Oscar for this role) on a boat with his then eight-year-old nephew Patrick (Ivy O’Brien). The two are playful together, as Lee jokingly says he knows more about life than Patrick’s dad and, thus, would be the one to choose if stranded on an island. The idea of isolation is introduced early here. As it turns out, Patrick starts out with a natural father and a father-figure, but he loses both. The sea suggests freedom but the isolation of being on the water can point to what happens later in the story.

There is a jump to the present in Boston where Lee is working as a handyman at an apartment building. It is winter and it is snowing, presenting a feeling of an unwelcoming environment. Lee’s constant acts of shoveling and filling up a dumpster with trash seem fruitless, like Sisyphus continually rolling his rock uphill. Lee can keep trying to dig himself out of his predicament, but the task is overwhelming to him. There is no feeling of community in this place as the residents seem to not have any social skills, which reflects Lee’s current state of mind. The tenants argue or are sexually inappropriate showing how they do not know how to interact with others, and Lee responds angrily when provoked by them.

This disconnect continues when Lee goes to a bar. A woman spills a drink on him as an awkward attempt at staring a conversation with Lee. Her action demonstrates an inability to connect in a meaningful way. He tries to avoid looking at the woman, indicating his unwillingness to interact with anyone. Two businessmen there appear to be talking about Lee and he accosts them, punching them both. Lee carries with him anger and shame because of his past, and he misdirects that wrath toward others. The Ray Charles song in the background is ironic because he is singing “Oh, what a beautiful morning.”

Lee lives in a basement apartment, alone of course, and its subterranean location shows how he has buried himself physically and emotionally in his withdrawal from life. There is even a sign on the back fence that says, “Keep Out,” which could mirror Lee’s mental state toward others. He has exiled himself from his hometown. But circumstances thrust him out of his personal purgatory in Boston back to Manchester-by-the-Sea. He learns that his brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler) is in the hospital but by the time Lee arrives he finds out from a friend, George (C. J. Wilson) that Joe is dead. Lee has become so numb from his prior trauma that he shows little outward emotion, maintaining his flat affect, common to those with post-traumatic stress disorder. Except for one angry f-bomb, irritability being another characteristic of PTSD, he maintains his distanced appearance. George’s sobbing contrasts with Lee’s stilted reaction. Director/writer Lonergan said that Lee is trying to keep the “walls from caving in,” so he exerts extreme effort not to collapse under the onslaught of his tortured emotions. However, when Lee goes to the morgue to see his dead brother, he does show emotion, hugging Joe’s body and whispering to him. It’s as if Lee is more equipped to connect with the dead than the living. Later, Lee has trouble even talking on the phone to the funeral home to set up arrangements for his brother.

There is a flashback to Joe’s previous hospitalization for congestive heart failure which his wife, Elise (Gretchen Moll), does not take calmly when Dr. Bethany (Ruibo Qian) tells the family that Joe has only five or ten years to live. When the doctor says, “it’s not a good disease,” Joe’s no-nonsense response is “What is a good disease?” The doctor says, “Poison Ivy,” and Lee adds, “Athlete’s foot.” They deal with bad news with humor to lessen the blow, but Elise can’t cope with the situation and leaves, feeling that Joe is not taking the threat seriously.

Another flashback of young Patrick and Lee with Joe shows how Lee would tease his nephew about how there are sharks ready to get at the boy even if he throws a bloody band aid in the water. These scenes show how familiar and at ease Lee and young Patrick were and how their prior relationship contrasts with the tension that exists in the present.

As Lee drives through the frigid Manchester-by-the-Sea he remembers coming back from his happy day on the boat to the warm domestic world of his wife, Randi (Michelle Williams), and his three young children. Randi has a flu-like illness, but Lee wants to be romantic despite that fact, and the two tease each other. The comfort and love are symbolized by the lit fireplace that will, ironically, be the thing that turns Lee’s life into a living hell.

Lee drives to pick up the teenage Patrick (Lucas Hedges) at his school to break the news about his father. He talks to Paul (Paul Meredith), the Assistant Principal, who tells Lee that Patrick is at hockey practice. The conversation between the men is broken up on the cell phone, and when Paul asks about Joe, Lee acts as if his brother is still alive. We have here a scene which stresses the lack of Lee’s ability to deal with another.

That lack of communication shows up again in the scene at the hockey rink. As soon as Patrick sees his usually absent uncle, he knows that there is something wrong with his father. Patrick is like his uncle, and instead of telling his coach (Tate Donovan) what he assumes, he yells at him instead. The camera shows Patrick and Lee talking at a distance, thus stressing Lee’s inability to express himself by the omission of any audible conversation. Even though that distanced conversation continues with his teammates, one of them hugs Patrick. This show of affection toward another living person contrasts with the embrace of a dead person that Lee showed earlier. Both Paul and the coach reveal that Lee is known for his tragic past, and how he may be to blame for what happened.

The inability to connect with another continues into the next scene where Lee and Patrick are in Lee’s car. Patrick can’t say whether he wants to see his father or not as Lee tries to explain how the boy’s father appears. When they get to the hospital, Lee asks Patrick if he wants to go home or see his father. Patrick says, “Let’s just go.” Lee starts to pull the car away and Patrick is angry, because he thought he said, “Let’s just go inside.”

Patrick asks Lee if he could have some friends over, including Patrick’s girlfriend, Silvie (Kara Hayward), to which Lee consents. Lee stays in the kitchen and goes upstairs, maintaining his distance from others. There is an awkward scene when Patrick asks Lee if Sylvie can stay over, and Lee says why is Patrick asking his permission. Lee asks if he should tell his nephew to use a condom. Patrick also asks if they should contact his mother, but Lee says they don’t even know where she is, which tells us how estrangement has widened as time progressed. (A flashback shows Lee and Joe coming back from an outing with young Patrick, and Alise is passed out, half-naked on the couch, with a bottle of booze next to her. Perhaps Joe spent more time with his brother and son, and not enough with his wife). There are silences between talking, as if both are trying to figure out what to say. Patrick hugs Lee, who seems stiff, as the hugging motif continues, showing Lee’s inability to show affection for the living. Patrick appears to be used to having an adult parent and Lee is at a loss as to how to fill that role. He later has difficulty typing an email to his mother, another moment of a failure to connect.

On the way to the lawyer’s office to hear Joe’s will, Patrick tries to reach out to his uncle by starting up a conversation with Lee about rock music. But Lee shuts it down by saying all the bands sound alike to him. Patrick does a quick shake of his head and lets out a short sigh as if in frustration with Lee’s inability to engage with him. At the lawyer’s office, the attorney surprises Lee by telling him that Joe chose his brother to be Patrick’s guardian. Joe set aside funds to take care of his son and for Lee’s moving back to Manchester-by-the-Sea. Lee is adamant about how he can’t carry out what the will says, but realizes that Joe didn’t discuss the matter with him because Joe knew Lee would have not agreed to its terms. It’s as if in death, Joe was trying to bring Lee home to reconnect with Patrick, and thus give him back some of the family he lost. Lee comes to the hard realization that he has no choice but to take care of Patrick.

While in the lawyer’s office we discover through a flashback the event that devastated Lee and Randi’s life. He was having a gang of his friends over one night and they were drinking. Randi slept downstairs and the kids were upstairs. The guys were loud and she told them to leave. Lee joked with his friends as they departed, but this fun time turned to tragedy. Lee, drunk and high on drugs, walked to the grocery store for more beer since he knew he couldn’t drive. He later told the police that he started a fire in the fireplace because it was cold upstairs, and his wife’s sinuses wouldn’t tolerate the forced hot air of the heater. He was trying to be conscientious, but forgot to put the fireplace screen in place. He says that a log must have rolled out and set the house ablaze. Randi was able to get out, but the children died in the fire. The police said it was a mistake, but the odds of what happened were so unlikely that Lee was not considered to be criminally negligent. At the police station Lee’s guilt is depicted as being overwhelming and, because he wasn’t charged with a crime, he wanted to put himself out of his misery. So, he grabbed a cop’s gun and tried to shoot himself, but the policemen restrained him. The bleak cold and snowing that the camera reveals mirrors Lee’s emotional landscape.

Lee is furious at having been placed in a parenting situation with Patrick when he is sure that is the last thing he is qualified to do. His anger at himself is misdirected at others. He is harsh toward Patrick when the boy jokes about the next stop might be the orphanage. He nastily berates Patrick about his desire to take care of the family boat, telling him he can’t maintain it, and is loudly hostile when a passerby comments sarcastically that Lee is showing “great parenting.”

Lee and Patrick meet with George about the boat. Lee does not want to return to Manchester-by-the Sea, the scene of where he considers his crime took place, so he blurts out that Patrick will be moving to Boston. Because he feels that he is unreliable, Lee wants to relinquish as much responsibility as possible, asking if George knows someone who will buy the boat. He goes so far as to put George on the spot by asking if he would like to be Patrick’s guardian, even though George already has kids to take care of. During this scene the conversations overlap, creating a cacophony of sound that furthers the theme of miscommunication. After leaving George, Patrick reveals that he has been emailing his mother after she contacted him, and discovered she lives in Connecticut. Lee is caught between what he wants, which is to withdraw from family concerns, and what he should do, which is not to have Patrick’s mother have custody of the young man.

After going to the funeral home, Patrick is initiated into the depressing realities of the funeral process. He learns that his father is being kept in a freezer until the ground thaws for the burial, and he says that “freaks him out.” He has no idea of the undertaking process and wants to get a small steam shovel to bury his dad quickly. Lee has no patience or empathy and becomes irritated instead of consoling his nephew about the youth’s concerns.

Lee brings Patrick to his other girlfriend’s house for practice with a rock band. Her name is Sandy (Anna Baryshnikov), and her mother is Jill (Heather Burns). Because of his alienated state of mind, Lee would rather stay outside in the cold car than go inside the house to pick up Patrick. Jill invites him in for dinner but of course Lee refuses.

Back at Joe’s house, Lee gets a call from his now ex-wife, Randi, who asks if she can come to Joe’s funeral. She offers condolences, but then drops a bomb on Lee, saying she is ready to have a child with her new husband. Randi has been able to move on and now is starting a new family, while the only companion that Lee has is his guilt. The church scene is shot in slow motion, which makes Lee’s suffering seem unrelenting as he sees Randi with her husband there.

At the reception at George’s house afterwards, the crowded, noisy room interferes with George calling to his wife about the food. They can’t hear each other, another example of the verbal disconnect between people. Back at Joe’s house, Patrick talks about all his connections in Manchester-by-the-Sea and doesn’t understand why Lee can’t be a janitor there since he has no ties in Boston. Because Lee is unable to talk about his feelings, he is unable explain that he can’t live in a place that holds nothing but misery for him.

Patrick opens the refrigerator and wrapped frozen meat falls out. He begins to become extremely agitated and slams the freezer as packages fall to the floor. We know that he is thinking about his father, but Lee is so detached he feels helpless trying to understand Patrick’s behavior. Patrick finally unleashes his feelings and cries. There is finally communication between them when Patrick connects his actions to hating the thought of his dad being kept in a freezer. Lee stays with the boy until he falls asleep, which is what a parent would do for an upset child.

A flashback shows the devastated Lee moving into a spare basement apartment after, we assume, he has broken up with Randi. Joe says they must get him furniture, but Lee yells at Joe to leave him alone. Probably, Lee doesn’t feel as if he deserves to have a comfortable home. But Joe quietly gets his brother to have some furniture in his new surroundings.

In the present, Lee concedes that Patrick can stay in the town until the end of the school year, and he can work with George on the boat in the summer. Patrick is not placated and there is again overlapping dialogue as they argue over how long it takes to get from Manchester-by-the-Sea to where Lee lives. They can’t even agree on the distance between two places.

Lee compromises, gathers his things in Boston, and moves back to Manchester-by-the-Sea through the summer. He goes around town looking for work, but people turn him down because they too feel he is responsible for the deaths of his children. It appears that it is impossible for him to live in this place because of his past. He looks out of the window in Joe’s room and suddenly punches his fist through the window. He hurts himself because of his anger for having to be back in the town, but he may be punishing himself for what he feels he deserves for his past actions. When Patrick asks what happened to his hand, Lee says, “I cut it.” Not much of an explanation. Patrick stresses this lack of communication by sarcastically saying, “for a minute there I didn’t know what happened.” Further breakdown in connecting to another occurs when Patrick’s mother, Elise, calls, and Lee can’t get himself to say anything before hanging up. He is most likely unable to deal with anything connected to the loss of his brother.

Lee continues his lack of talking by not telling Patrick his mother called. Patrick says she emailed him and she is sober and wants Patrick to meet her and her fiancé. Patrick says he can live with Eloise. Typically, Lee says he doesn’t want to talk about it. But, he is willing to call her back and if she sounds okay, he will let Patrick meet his mother. He is stuck chauffeuring Patrick around and suggests a driver’s education course, but Patrick says his father didn’t want him driving until he is seventeen. Lee is still torn between what’s best for himself and his nephew.

Patrick says he wants Lee to spend some time with Sandy’s mother, Jill, who he says is attracted to Lee. Patrick wants some time so he can have sex with his girlfriend while Lee is with her mom. Lee, reluctant as ever to be social, agrees, since Patrick pleads with him so he feels he should help him out. But he is so lacking in any social skills at this point that Jill finds the time with Lee unbearable. Patrick criticizes Lee on the drive home for not being able to even participate in small talk, that is how dysfunctional Lee has become. (It is humorous that Patrick is upstairs half-naked with Sandy, but trips over her doll house, which points to how these young people are caught in that awkward stage between childhood and adulthood).

On the way to Elise’s house Lee and Patrick continue their inability to connect even down to the smallest detail. They can’t even confirm the address. Elise looks clean and sober as she introduces her fiancé, Jeffrey (Matthew Broderick). Lee leaves and they have dinner. There is a religious painting over the fireplace. They say grace before the meal, and Elise says she didn’t hear Patrick say “Amen.” Elise seems nervous, as Patrick reports to Lee on the ride home. He also comments that Jeffrey is “very Christian,” suggesting that she depended on religious strictness to keep her addiction in line. Lee acts positive, saying Elise is sober and not in a mental institution. Patrick, who wanted to break ties with Lee, does a reversal because of how uptight his mothers’ home is. He accuses Lee of trying to get rid of him. Jeffrey sends an email to Patrick saying that they can’t rush Elise into her son joining the household and that all future communications must go through him. His message shows how fragile Elise’s sobriety is, and Patrick slams his laptop closed, which shows how his hope that his mother was fit for him to live with can’t be realized.

Patrick is sad because of what happened with his mom, so Lee makes an attempt at empathy by asking what Patrick’s friends are doing or if he wants to invite Sandy over. It’s not enough to raise Patrick’s spirits, but the boy admits that at least Lee is now trying. Earlier Lee refused to get a loan for a new engine for Joe’s boat. Now, he eyes Joe’s rifle collection and says they could be worth enough to pay for a new boat motor. Patrick smiles, admitting that is a good idea. Lee is finally successful in reaching out to his nephew and bonding with him through this act. He also gives some free time for Sandy and Patrick to be together, knowing how important it is to his nephew. When they put in the new motor and the boat is sailing Lee smiles, maybe for the first time in the present. The shot mirrors the opening when he felt at home and at ease on the waters of his town.

Lee encounters his ex-wife, Randi, on a walk. This scene shows the writing, acting, and directing at its best as the two struggle to have a conversation as the trauma due to the loss of their children still devastates them. Randi has her new baby with her, which adds to Lee’s emptiness. As they talk, they appear to be on either side of a divide, Randi is on the left side of a wall’s edge and Lee stands on the other. The image stresses the emotional barrier that separates them. Randi seems to want to bridge that separation by asking if they might have lunch together. Randi begins to cry as she says she is sorry for horrible things she said to Lee at the time of their loss and admits that she still loves him. She admits that her heart is still broken, but she represents the type of person who deals with that damage by trying to continue living some version of a meaningful life. Lee remains in anguish, saying “there is nothing there” for him to hold onto that could allow him to connect to Randi. It’s as if her offer confronts him with how much he has lost, and he must leave to avoid that feeling.

That sense of profound loss fuels Lee’s anger at himself and he again vents it by attacking others as he gets into a barroom brawl. George rescues him after Lee is hurt and takes him to George’s house. There he cries, releasing emotion that he has suppressed for so long. Once he experiences feelings again, Lee is able to give his nephew some affectionate pats on the shoulder.

Lee starts cooking something on the stove and then takes a nap. He dreams of his two very young daughters who ask him why he can’t see that they are burning. He wakes up to the sound of the fire alarm which was triggered by the burning food on the range. It’s as if Lee is unable to escape the fire that burned up his life years ago.

Lee talks things over with George. Two of his children will be leaving home so Lee sets it up for George and his wife to adopt Patrick. He will stay with them until he’s eighteen. Patrick will then have his father’s house and do with it what he wants. This way he will be able to stay in his hometown. Lee secured a handyman job elsewhere. Patrick wants his uncle to stay in Manchester-by-the-Sea, but Lee tells him, “I can’t beat it.” Lee finally communicates with Patrick about his pain and then hugs the boy, showing affection that he has not shared for so long. He has made plans that he knows will be the best for his nephew, and knows that he can’t live in the place that haunts him.

When the ground is warm enough they can bury Joe. Lee is looking for an apartment that has an extra room for Patrick if he wants to visit, Patrick doesn’t say anything except he will not be looking to go to college in the city. He probably is still not thrilled about his uncle leaving. Lee is bouncing a ball he found outside an ice cream shop and the two sort of have a catch, like a father and a son.

The last scene mirrors the first one, as Lee and Patrick fish on the boat. This time it is quiet, with no teasing, but even though they are not audibly communicating, it is still comforting for the two of them to be together.

The next film is The Breakfast Club.