Manchester By The Sea

I thought I’d start the year by giving a review of my favorite film of 2025. Whilst I’m sure you are now thinking “didn’t Manchester by the sea, come out a decade ago?” Yes, you would be correct but nevertheless it was my favorite film I watched last year, and I wanted to write my thoughts on it regardless of how late to the party I am.

Ok to start, I thought Casey Affleck’s performance is one of the best performances I have seen from an actor in a leading role. With the nature of his character being rather subdued in his demeanor, I feel like this is a personality that would be very easy to end up not registering well to an audience, But Casey never skips a beat with his performance with Lee. It’s odd but given the nature of his character, I feel like his performance is incredibly expressive, particularly in the subtle moments that are easy to overlook. A good example being when you can see the way he processes seeing Randy’s new partner for the first time. Nothing is said in that moment, but his performance steels the show. Yes, obviously Lee is written incredibly well, and a good amount of the praise must go to the directing and the writing of his character. With that said, anyone can read words off a page, but it’s about what you do that’s not in the script, how well you are able to do the intangibles, like the way you deliver your lines, or the way you react to things, that separate good performances from great ones. Casey Affleck with his portrayal of Lee, certainly delivers one of the great ones.

Something that also stood out to me was the pacing. Going into a film that looks to explore more serious themes, it can be challenging to balance giving those elements the time needed for them to be explored, whilst not coming at the cost of the general flow of the story. The way the film navigates this challenge is something that I really enjoyed. I found the story to be very engaging throughout with the way its structured by Kenneth Lonergan. I think the time jumps are done very well. The reason why it works so well can be attributed to the context in which the changes between the present and the past take place, Lonergan does it in a way where these transitions are purposeful in their implementation and used in a way to move the plot forwards, to either create suspense or provide context.

I also want to mention the Cinematography, the visual language that we get is perfect for the story that we are seeing unfold. There is real beauty in its simplicity, it’s not groundbreaking with reinventing things with an experimental new approach, but it does not need to be. I appreciate the simple long static takes that we see a lot of throughout the film, I think with a story as emotional as this, it allows us to really form a proper connection with the characters, as we are living that experience with them. Additionally, I also thought the composition of shots and different camera angles was something that really stood out to me. I think this is in part down to the fact that, Lonergan chooses to go with a larger than normal aspect ratio, mid shots in particular feel more spacious and it creates a more real atmosphere that I think is visually very pleasing to look at.

Another component of the film that I think is significant, is the way in which Lonergan uses music. Throughout the film we hear different types of classical music being played in significant moments for Lee. More noticeably in sad scenes but it’s also present for the happier moments in the film too. We also hear how sometimes the music overpowers the dialogue in certain sequences, and how in others it acts as a more subtle detail that’s present in the background. I think you can take the music to say and mean a lot of different things. The way in which I best interpret it, is being another median given to the audience to get a better understanding of Lee’s emotions. The music communicates for us, a lot of what I think Lee is feeling that he cannot fully express externally. This is shown through the differing changes in volume and melodies.  As a whole, I think the music adds so much more depth to Lee as a character, who we can understand more through the use of music.

With a good amount of well-deserved praise out of the way, I did briefly want to talk about some of my issues with Patrick. I think Lucas Hedges gives a really good performance alongside Casey Affleck. My issues lie more with the arc of Patrick as a whole. I don’t mind having a character that is struggling with processing their grief, Lee being a fine example. Lee works so well because we see his journey progress throughout the film. We see him try hard to uphold his brothers wishes, however in the end he fails and that’s ok because whilst it’s not the perfect happy ending, we can see progression in his character as he comes to that realization. With Patrick, we never really get that. We see a kid struggling to process the death of his father, and someone who spends most of the film trying to distract himself. Whilst I’m not arguing with the realism of this scenario, I do feel as though we never see him progress in processing his grief or overcoming anything. I appreciate that in real life grief is very complex and there is no one way that all must approach it, but with that said this is a film, and these are characters, there should be character progression, and it just feels like Patrick’s journey ends up not really going anywhere and thus a bit underwhelming.

Small complaint to Patrick aside, this remains my favorite movie that I saw in 2025. There are so many different components to this film which makes it such a brilliant watch. Its raw portrayal of grief is so grounded and relatable, whilst I and many others won’t be able to relate to the specifics of the grief that Lee experiences, we have all experienced difficult moments in our lives and through Lee we can see what feels like a very authentic portrayal of deep emotional anguish. The screenplay is so well crafted, and as I’ve mentioned before, Casey Affleck’s performance is a masterpiece in subtle acting and on its own is reason enough to watch this film, I honestly could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. A truly brilliant watch.