Originally published: . Volume 8, No. 4. Source pages: 12.
Manchester by the Sea is not a chick flic. It is a dark story with sparse flashes of humor that serve to highlight the essential darkness. It pivots on issues of male bonding. Of the females portrayed, the one that provides the most gratification to the men in the story is a fishing boat, the Claudia Marie.
The movie opens with the central character, Lee Chandler, struggling to unclog a toilet for an impatient woman occupant of the building in Boston where he is the janitor. Lee goes on to deal with a plumbing crisis in another apartment whose snarky tenant provokes Lee’s ire, leading to a consequent rebuke from his employer. The emphasis on cleaning up messes is a signal that anger, in Freudian terms an anal issue, will be key in the film.
The next day, Lee learns that his brother, Joe, in nearby Manchester is gravely ill. Before Lee can get to the hospital, Joe dies. We see Lee’s farewell kiss on his brother’s cold cheek. Lee goes on to search for Joe’s son, Patrick, and his breaking the news of his father’s death to the teenager. In another reference to anger, when Lee finds Patrick the boy is embroiled in a hockey rink exchange of fisticuffs.
A tangled, hard-to-follow series of flashbacks provide context. Earlier, living in Manchester, Lee’s drunken carelessness caused a house fire in which his two young children died. When the police decide that Lee will not be charged, he seizes an officer’s gun and attempts suicide. It requires several officers to restrain him.
In other flashbacks, we learn that Lee’s embittered wife, Randi, left him and remarried. We also learn that the initial
diagnosis of Joe’s cardiac problems had panicked his wife, Elise, who deserted him and their son, Patrick.
In the main story line, Lee learns that his brother’s will designates him as Patrick’s guardian. Lee and Patrick try to become reacquainted and to resolve complications. One focus of their struggle is where to live. The boy does not want to leave Manchester and his hometown friends. On the other hand, Lee feels like an outcast in Manchester and wants to return to Boston where he has no past.
Another fraught issue is what to do with the Claudia Marie, an old fishing boat has taken generations of Chandlers on all male fishing expeditions, now decrepit and in need of expensive repairs. Lee cannot see a way of paying for them; Patrick is adamant about keeping the boat.
Patrick persuades Lee to abet him in his sexual adventures with high school girlfriends. The single mother of one of the girls tries unsuccessfully to arouse Lee’s interest. Her awkward efforts and the teenagers’ clumsy, error prone sexual scrambles provide comic relief. Additional comic relief flickers when Patrick’s mother invites her son to dinner. The hyper-religious new husband is markedly unenthusiastic about acquiring a son.
In poignant contrast to these humorous elements, Lee’s former wife, newly pregnant, accidentally encounters him and attempts to apologize for her initial lack of forgiveness. Lee cannot accept the tenderness. He responds with mute avoidance.
In another meaningful scene, one that echoes with the movie’s opening, we see Lee, alone and feeling misunderstood, having a drink in a bar. He thinks one of the locals is staring at him and provokes a fight that leaves him bruised and battered.
The focus returns to the Claudia Marie. To Patrick’s delight, Lee realizes that his brother’s collection of expensive rifles can be sold to raise the money to repair the boat. Lee also persuades an old friend in Manchester to adopt Patrick, permitting the boy to finish high school in Manchester and freeing Lee to leave town. Patrick, grown fond of his surrogate dad, tearfully asks why Lee can’t stay. Lee confesses that he “can’t beat it”—can’t find a way to accept closeness. The movie ends with Lee and Patrick fishing on the refurbished boat. Lee tells his nephew that he will look for a new apartment with a guest bedroom, hinting at the possibility of a relationship, albeit an attenuated one.
Manchester by the Sea is remarkable in its depiction of male bonding, of the kind of tenderness than can exist between men. In contrast, it is unremitting in its depiction of flawed women. That misogyny made me wonder.
The movie clearly stresses the connection between Lee’s angry outbursts and his depression. His self-hate like all depression, is self-directed anger.
Guest Columnist, Dr. Alvin Burstein
c o u r t e s y p h o t o
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.