Movie: Manchester By the Sea (2016)****

I went to New York City and spent the majority of the time on a couch in a timeshare. I finally got up one night, a Monday, you know, when the majority of a the theaters are dark, and the only show I was able to catch was Blackbird, a single-set drama starting Michelle Williams and Jeff Bridges. At the time I disliked it, but seeing Manchester By the Sea, gave me a different point of view, and I wish I would have seen the movie before the play. After seeing the film, I look back at the play and can appreciate the intensity of the situation, the set, and most definitely the acting. I see it all in a different light, so to speak: From the harsh tungsten of the office break room to the natural, partly cloudy skies of Massachusetts.

That being said, I enjoyed more than Michelle Williams' acting in Manchester By the Seas. It was a movie with an authentic feel that was well acted and with dialogue that one might confuse with being unscripted.

In it, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), a sad case who banished himself to Boston after his own tragedy, learns of his brother's sudden death and returns to his hometown. Not long after. Lee discovers that his brother had willed him to be the legal guardian of his nephew and property, a responsibility he doesn't feel strong enough to take on.

Manchester by the Sea hardly has any music in it. Most of the scenes survived on silence, dialogue and the play between the actors.

Best scene: When Patrick, the nephew, Patrick, finally breaks down and Lee does his best to help him.

This won the 2017 Chocket Award for Best Talkie and I'm giving it Four Stars**** because it is really good and I do want to watch it more than once, but I'm not sure if this is one I'll want to watch over and over again. We'll see how I feel in a year.