Manchester by the Sea director Kenneth Lonergan leaves you longing for the ever-elusive closure to an extreme tragedy. It diverges away from traditional narrative structures and reflects that, in the everyday, trauma intertwines itself with its victim and sometimes refuses to let go.
Manchester by the Sea could easily diverge into a melodramatic depiction of grief, but it rather opts to show the continuous mourning of the haunted figure Lee and his nephew Patty whilst the daily happenings of life go on à la Musée des Beaux Arts.
The film opens with a nostalgic scene with Lee on a fishing trip with his nephew Patrick and his brother Joe. This moment of pure everyday bliss is juxtaposed with a cut to present day Lee, a lonesome janitor lacking in bedside manner who is brought back to his hometown of Manchester by the death of Joe. Quite early in the film, the audience comes to know that Joe has made it so that Lee would move to Manchester and become Patrick’s guardian in the event of his death. The series of events that follow are interspersed with subtle flashbacks which capture Lee grappling with whether or not he will be able to care for Patrick in a place that is filled with memories of his past trauma. Tension prevails throughout the film between the melancholy Lee when he states, “There’s nothing there…” and the smallest part of him that wants to reconnect with the world around him and be there for his nephew.
This is apparent in a particularly poignant scene where Patrick has his first full-bodied breakdown in response to his father’s body being kept in a freezer until the frozen ground has melted. Lee very clearly doesn’t know what to do in the situation, asking Patrick in a panicked way whether he should take him to the hospital or call his friends. But his deep love for his nephew comes through in his decision to sit with Patrick even after he claims to be fine. There is an element of comedy to this scene given that Patrick’s breakdown was triggered by the sight of frozen chicken breasts in conjunction with Lee’s panicked response. The humorous back and forth between them and Patrick’s cocky yet charming attitude, complete with his terrible garage rock band and two girlfriends, shows that mourning individuals are defined by more than their grief.
When questioned about the intent behind the film, Lonergan articulates that he wanted to represent the people that are forever changed by their trauma and for whom complete closure is unattainable. The unannounced flashbacks construct a narrative that implies that the past trauma Lee has experienced is a facet of his present self. This is particularly due to the visual subtly of these flashbacks that they appear like flashes of memory. He feels nostalgia for happier times on the boat and his estranged wife whilst feeling consumed with a broken heart for his loss. Lonergan messes with the effect that temporality has on us in an earlier scene when Lee takes the elevator to see his brother’s body. There is a cut to a flashback of the past where Joe’s heart condition is first revealed to his family, leaving the viewers confused because we believe Joe to be alive. These constant flashbacks to moments of intense emotion indicate that Lee is overwhelmed by his past and that he, in his own words, “Cannot beat it” in the way that Patrick needs him to.
There is a non-ending to this film that might disappoint the hopeful viewer in need of a clear narrative, but Lonergan thrives in his ability to show a nuanced take on trauma and the subsequent grieving as it occurs in real life. It is ongoing and something that one never quite gets over, but learns to live with.