To be honest, this isn't the first time I've watched it in a movie theater and watched it again on my computer when I get home. But only in this movie, and after half a year, I still remember very clearly what that seaside town should look like on the big screen. And after all this has been shrunk many times on my computer, it seems so inconsistent.
It's really an amazing experience.
The first time I watched "Manchester by the Sea" was in February this year. When I walked into the cinema, I really didn't have much expectations. Because on the surface, this is a very typical American independent literary film. The scenery is beautiful, the emotions are delicate, the plot is simple, and it is very life-like. It tells how a man deals with his inner trauma. This kind of movie has to be released a few every year in Hollywood awards season, and it seems that it is difficult to make anything new. Like all kinds of popcorn blockbusters, they are actually production line works that change the soup but not the dressing, but everyone's target market is different.
It happened to be a weekday afternoon, the cinema was almost empty, the entire row was empty, and I was curled up in a chair by myself. Until now, when I think about it, I still remember the picture that was always too bright. Light blue sea, pale snow, empty pier. But they are all so cold and hard that one feels no warmth at all. In broad daylight, it turned out to be so cold.
Now that I think about it, why did "Manchester by the Sea" stand out among these many blurry films, not only because of Casey Affleck's superb acting skills, but also because of Kenneth Lonergan's screenwriting skills, delicate, and Sophisticated and clever.
This film is not only realistic, but also exquisite. Although the plot is simple, it has always kept suspense because of the way of interlude. Although the most crucial dramatic plot is deliberately hidden, this "unbearable to mention" makes the sad mood more layered. The film is composed of various life-like details, but these details are not only to present the real life texture, but also to make the characters more full.
A lot of people refer to these kinds of predominantly white films, and they seem to always be talking about the middle class. But in my opinion, the most distinctive thing about this film is that kind of "anti-middle class" core.
The so-called middle class seems to always live in false hope. Filling their lives with all kinds of hobbies, baking, fitness, reading, traveling... as if they would become better people and live happier lives. But in the final analysis, these so-called "fullness" are irrelevant at all. They are eager to build their lives according to the "perfect life", but they have no idea what they want.
I often think of Richard Yates novels. He himself is destitute, but his characters never seem to worry about survival because he's going to give them the death penalty from another angle.
These people are all middle-class, ambitious, and have many artistic dreams. In the end, they will always spend a long life accepting the fact that they are not geniuses and will never be able to stand in the center of the stage. What's the point of such a dull, boring, hopeless life?
Because of this, when young nephew Patrick said to Lee "I'm on the ice hockey team, I'm on the basketball team, I have two girlfriends, I'm in the band, you're just a cleaner, why care. Where do you live?", my heart stabbed in an instant.
He is still so young, he feels that his life has just begun, and there are countless possibilities. But he didn't know how an ordinary middle-aged man could live forever in self-loathing and remorse, and how could he spend the rest of his life cherishing the short-lived happiness.
That kind of happiness was nothing to be proud of. Li is just an ordinary worker with a wife and three children. He wants to live in the midst of firewood, rice, oil, salt, and occasional quarrels. He wants to dedicate his life to his family. It was supposed to be a road that could see the end at a glance.
However, Li now has nothing left.
Patrick really began to understand Lee, presumably after he had a meal with his mother. Before that, he was equally enthusiastic and full of expectations for the mother's love that had been missing for many years. It was not until he actually sat at the dinner table that he realized that they had become so estranged, and that the woman sitting opposite him, he didn't know anything at all.
She seemed to want to mend their relationship, but they were too far apart, an impassable gulf.
It's not so much that this embarrassing lunch made Patrick realize that, compared to this unreachable mother, he still has only his uncle to rely on in his life... Rather, he finally felt frustration and loss.
He always has to learn to understand that there are many relationships that cannot be repaired, and many regrets that cannot be filled. It was as if the maternal love he lost could never be found again. They have both missed a long time in each other's lives.
The matter has come to this point, what else can I do other than watch it coldly?
On the other hand, the role of Casey is just too good, too rich. Although this movie seems to be piled up with various life-like details, the idea is actually very clear. Every detail in the film, even the contrast of Patrick's entire character line, is designed to show Lee's life on every level. It's all to discuss one thing, how to continue to live for a person who is more sad than death.
In most similar literary films, we will remember the painful and numb faces of the protagonists, or the names of the leading actors; but only "Manchester by the Sea" reminds me of this man and Lee.
By the end, he was almost literally standing in front of me. This character is so full and layered. Made me feel like I was intruding into his life, I felt like I was talking to him over the air.
I'm not curled up in a chair looking up at him on the big screen. I stood in the crowd at the fire scene, in the corner of the police station, on the pier by the sea, in his brother's house, by his car waiting for his nephew late at night. look at him.
I'd love to go over and hug him, but I know it's impossible. Not because he's just a character in the movie, but because he doesn't need to. He doesn't need the unrelenting concern of strangers, and the pity of onlookers. You don't need to be understood, you don't need to be sympathetic.
I'm not him, and I can't help him.
Lee has always lived too much sober. Because he is too sober, he is so silent, rude, absent-minded, as if he doesn't care about anything. He knows too well what he wants; he also knows too well that it is impossible for him to make up for the mistakes he has committed in his entire life.
However, he is also a very kind person. That's why he fled in front of his ex-wife's tears, turned his head and couldn't help but erupted in the bar, relying on self-injury to vent his emotions. That's why he was so gentle with that young and arrogant nephew, and he even invited him to live with him in the end, cautiously and clumsily.
As if... as if he had a future.
As if they had a future.
However, even so, since there is no death, people still have to live.
Live in pain, live in regret.
On a road where you can see the end at a glance, a young man may suddenly run out and pull you to the seaside.
The sea in winter is so cold, but this is also the sea you love.
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