The real death of "Manchester by the Sea" never needs to be preached, and when he shoots without hesitation, the bullet "kills" him.
The sloppy and unkempt Lee (male lead) works as a handyman in Boston, repairing water pipes, repairing electrical appliances, connecting sewers, and helping to take out the garbage, but he is cold, tired, rude, and not enthusiastic enough. In stark contrast to the joy at the beginning, what kind of change can make a man like this?
The scenes of throwing garbage and shoveling snow are repetitive, and day after day, living in the basement, he is plagued by heavy snow accumulation. These winter snow are never clean, just like the past that has always weighed on his heart, and his life is like those unwanted garbage, lonely and decadent.
In the film, after receiving the news of his brother's death, the closer he gets to Manchester, the memories of the past come flooding in one by one, and the alternation of the past and reality really shows the man's pain.
is he dead?George (the male protagonist's friend) was full of choked up when he replied to him, and he was even more sad than Lee. At this time, Li's face was expressionless, his eyes frequently rolled up and down, and finally put his hand in his pocket. The helplessness and panic were well covered, and the seemingly calm and indifferent things were arranged.
And then you will mistakenly think that the male protagonist Li has always been like this?No, when he entered the door to see his brother's body, he raised his left hand uncontrollably, and then shrugged his shoulders involuntarily and changed to a cross-waist movement, completely exposing his emotions. Holding his hands at his sides, he walked stiffly towards the body almost with his hands and feet. Although he was prepared, and the family knew about it when his brother was diagnosed, Li still couldn't fully control his emotions when it happened, and his heart would not turn into ice because of staying away and blocking. But after saying goodbye and coming out, he covered up and suppressed his heart again, and became the bottom of the sea that seemed to be forever calm and invisible.
Staggered memories of spending time with her young nephew and brother on board the Claudia Maria, the sun was shining and dotted with a few bright colors. Warm and joyful, Li at that time had love, family, friendship and family. He is the king of happiness. Remember this scene, this is where it all began, and where it will eventually end. At this time, Li is in stark contrast to the past, and this sense of see-saw and separation is gradually enhanced as the movie progresses.
In the film, there are a series of shots that I really like. When Lee tells his nephew that his father is dead, it's not just a close-up view, it's more of a long-distance view of his nephew's teammates. The whispers displayed in the language of the camera are curious and full of doubts, and the younger generation is curious about Lee, which also lays the groundwork for his inability to stay in Manchester later.
Then there's another brilliant shot design, where Lee walks lonely across the outside of the ice hockey rink to the right side of the camera, and the trainer quickly overtakes him in the same direction, leaving the frame, and he is the only one who slowly walks out. The next scene in the fixed camera is when the nephew comes out of the ice hockey rink, taking off the protective gear, one person is not slow but also to the right, and the other trainers are wearing protective gear, neatly and quickly sliding to the left. The figures are staggered, the direction is reversed, and if you savor this shot, you will feel how good the director is at shooting.
The young man will eventually meet in the future, because the nephew will catch up with the big army, he is just slowing down for a while, and he can change. And Lee walked on a lonely one-way street. Some people will eventually go to loneliness, and some people will be able to return to the crowd.
When Lee and his nephew were together, they were always arguing. Lee's emotions can be easily mobilized by his nephew, and they are more vivid. And the nephew is also not good at expressing his heart in this way. In fact, they all more or less hide their emotions, trying to get familiar with and love each other.
Patrick (the male protagonist's nephew) left his girlfriend overnight to report to the adult, only to find that his father Joe was gone, and he repeatedly struggled with the embarrassment of trying to find Lee chatting and the slightly cautious hug. Patrick and Lee are eerily similar in some ways.
The helplessness and loneliness of the death of a loved one, Patrick will write an email at night to ask for his mother's help, but during the day there is no difference from a normal teenager, and he can't get good guidance from his uncle Lee, how can the two "patients" help each other?The answer is given by Joe: Lee is Patrick's guardian, which is also the mutual redemption we expect when watching the movie. At this time, the audience is easy to be brought in, which is a headache topic, and it is also the inevitable result of everyone who likes to see it or has already been foreshadowed in the front of the film.
The memories interspersed back and forth again, compared with him at this time, pushed the film into a climax, and also made everyone really understand Li at this time and understand the changes before and after him. Because of his own mistakes, he forgot to put the protective net on the stove, and the three children all died in the fire, and how desperate, lost faith, and lost everything all the time.
In this solo close-up elaboration, Li did not shed a single tear, and the painful self-blame overflowed the camera, infiltrating the hearts of every audience. He deliberately emphasized his actions, thinking that he would be punished, and he was uncertain when he was released. What he was looking forward to was to receive severe punishment, and since he didn't, he would punish himself. So without hesitation, he snatched the gun that passed by the police, and prepared to kill himself by drinking bullets, without the slightest hesitation!
The background of the intertwined Baroque composer Albinoni's "Adagio in G minor" gradually rises, and he seems to have been rescued, but he has been "killed" by bullets, and his walking body has no soul anymore!
However, life has to go on, when Lee and his nephew Patrick quarreled, the "blue fat man" who suddenly interjected next to him was director Kenneth Lonergan, "The child teaches well", what an ironic sentence. That's where Lee began to try to communicate, how to take care of a child, skills he had lacked for too many years.
Lee tried not to refuse his nephew's unreasonable demands, but he would not guide him like a normal guardian. He watched the game in the middle of the night, without any passion in his eyes, empty. Lee, played by Cassie Affleck, is like a Dementor in Azkaban, and every time the audience looks at his empty eyes, what he gets is not calm, but sucks away the soul and takes away the joy, and the heart will tremble. And Lee is a soulless Dementor.
When Patrick suddenly panicked and began to cry because he saw frozen chicken, we outside the play seemed to understand the different expressions of sadness. This paragraph makes people want to cry and laugh, Li finally began to care about and care about everything about his nephew, he didn't want to lose his relatives anymore, and took the initiative to protect him, which was also Joe's original intention, and it was also everything that Joe took Patrick to do for Lee. Off the screen, we sincerely hope that they can start their journey of redemption.
He rudely packed his clothes, but carefully separated the three children's ** with thick scarf wraps. In order to take care of his nephew, he finally had to move out of this cage of self-imprisonment. The three albums, corresponding to the three divisions of the low window, used to be a living flower outside the window, but now there is only snow. The director everywhere hints at the importance of children and strong self-blame in Li's heart, and this kind of life is the closest place to children that Li is looking forward to. This is also a hint of the film's final choice, which is contrary to our expectations.
The rest of Manchester, like his brother Joe, his good friend George, and his nephew Patrick, don't want to save him, but more of a disgust for him and a fear of his past mistakes.
His emotional world was full of devastation, and his nephew's rude demands pushed him instead, which I always thought might be what Joe had hoped for. is like Lee's Patrick, the mutual ** between two "patients" who don't know how to express each other, this is also the director's control of all the audience's hearts, this man needs redemption too much. And then the truth is, he refused, sealing his heart. The fiery heat of the young men and women upstairs was impatient;The quietness, restraint, and alienation of the adult men and women downstairs.
Perhaps only a close connection with his past family can arouse Lee's emotions again. For the first time in the movie, he smiled, and not just when he was reminiscing, but we cried off the screen. He looked at his nephew, who had a new engine, and took his girlfriend with him, and when he was driving that boat, everything was getting better little by little. The scenery began to color, and the ice and snow began to smile. The film ushered in the final climax and turning point, he met his ex-wife.
This paragraph is very classic, no less than the one in the male protagonist's monologue. His wife, Randy's crying and apology, shattered all the false goodness he had built, and everything collapsed. The woman is heartbroken and moves forward to start a new life, while the man is heartbroken but always trapped in a cage.
In the bar, the second time he attacked someone. George saved him, and the tears he had suppressed for so long finally fell. For a moment, I really hope that the male protagonist Li can come out in this way. This conversation in my sleep is about Lee and his children
Can't you see the fire on us?”
No, baby, you don't have any fire on you. ”
The beep of the smoke alarm made me understand that he would never get out. “i can’t beat it!Li said to his nephew twice, and the man finally admitted that he was trapped in the past and could never get out, giving up the road to redemption given by his brother. And off the screen, we are as painful and worried as him, but we can finally understand Li's choice, those good memories cannot be forgotten, and Li is not willing to carry those heaviness to find a new life.
Spring came, and finally Joe was buried in the ground. Lee would still return to Boston, but not quite as he had done in the past, wanting to rent a two-room house. He couldn't really take care of his nephew, but he tried his best to make some changes. I can't let go, but I will move forward. The film finally follows the beginning, all on the Mary, and it is all the pictures of Lee and his nephew getting along.
The whole movie ends here, but the depression and depression that Lee left for the audience are always there. Maybe some people are like this, and they will never come out of the pain of the past for the rest of their lives. The pain caused by the death of a loved one is not only in the moment of knowing, but also in the memory of the rest of the life, an interlude recalled by chance, a cigarette in the afternoon, a bottle of beer after a meal, and ice cream in the refrigerator.
For some reason, Li reminded me of Fugui in "Alive", the pain of life and the loss of their loved ones did not make them actively choose to die, they obeyed to live and live with pain, and so do we, which is about the meaning of life itself.