It won Casey Affleck an Oscar and continues to preoccupy countless fans to this day: Manchester by the Sea remains unforgettable and one particularly intense scene has stood the test of time.
The film begins – like many others – with a return to the hometown. In this case, it is the craftsman Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) who travels from Boston to the small coastal town of Manchester by the Sea because his brother has died. In the gray town, not only his orphaned nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges) awaits him, but also the shadows of his past.
A flashback in Manchester by the Sea shows the toughest scene
Lee is supposed to take custody of his nephew. But while he gradually comes to terms with the teenager, dark memories keep haunting him in his old hometown. Just a few years ago, Lee lived in the city as a happily married father of three.
Spoiler alert for the plot of Manchester by the Sea! If you still want to see the movie, you should skip the following paragraph and continue reading below.
The movie takes its time telling us what has thrown Lee’s life off track. However, the revelation hits us all the harder. When he returned from shopping one evening, he realized that he had not put up the protective grille when he was stoking the fireplace: his house is on fire and his children have died upstairs.
The next scene shows Lee at the police station, desperately trying to take his own life by grabbing the gun of a passing police officer. Screaming and whimpering, he is then wrestled to the ground by the officers.
To this day, fans are still shocked by the movie
“I can’t help but watch it over and over again. The grief, the performances, the rawness of it all… it just gets stuck,” writes a user on Reddit. With almost 9,000 likes, someone on Letterboxd asks: ”Have you ever had a lump in your throat that lasts for 2 hours?” Another Reddit comment uses similar words:
I probably cried five times, but none of it felt cheap or manipulative. It was just a sad, real, human situation.
Our editor Patrick Reinbott also has nothing but praise for the moving family drama that won Casey Affleck the Oscar for Best Actor.
Manchester by the Sea also won the Oscar for best screenplay in 2017, and deservedly so. But what makes the film so different from other dramas?
Manchester by the Sea is surprisingly mundane – and even funny
The harrowing scenes are embedded in small interpersonal moments without much excitement. “It’s strange that this was one of the funniest movies I saw this year,” writes another user. Many scenes are told quietly and sensitively, showing everyday situations and confronting us all the more effectively with the reality of grief and processing. Even today, the film is still worth every rewatch.
Unfortunately, you can’t stream Manchester by the Sea anywhere by subscription, but you can rent and buy it from many streaming platforms such as Amazon, the Sky Store, Magenta TV and many more.
