Manchester by the Sea and The Grand Budapest Hotel

Manchester by the Sea – Tragedy in Boston                                                ★★★★

Manchester by the Sea is a film that has to be felt more than to be watched. This is its greatest success and its greatest failure all at the same time. It's a film about grief, and follows Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) as he struggles to cope.

The fact about this movie is that the plot is paper thin, and it had to be for it to work. Rather it is a deep and intense character study of Lee, and to some extent the his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges). We see them handle their griefs distinctly and in both very similar and very different ways. Again this duality appears, I believe that it is at least in part because, the movie is trying to highlight the extreme complexity of human character, even more so in a time of grief. The duality goes further, not only are their griefs similar and different, their relationship is one born out of love and disaster. As humans we can love someone and hate someone at the same time, and Manchester by the Sea exhibits this very well.

The film goes even further to take a snapshot of the human condition through its use of incredibly black hole dark humour. At one point, during a sad moment, Lee delivers an unintentionally (for the character, not the script) hilarious line, but it is done in such a way that it doesn't break the tension or the tone of the scene. Rather it makes you the audience feel bad for laughing, because we all know these moments. These moments of awkwardness that creep into surreal and life changing moments really do happen, especially so during times of grief. Now the film also takes the decision to portray life in a hyper-realistic sense. People trip up over their words, people forget where they park the car and of course moments of awkwardness are interjected at times they come up before. Manchester by the Sea does all this easily, to heighten the humanity of the situation, and of course, the ever present grief.

Casey Affleck puts on an absolute clinic in subtle acting. To say he portrayed a man devoured by grief would be an under-statement. Every time you look at him in this film you can feel the sadness, the horror and yes, the grief, in his eyes. Despite this he is at his best when Michelle Williams is present. Towards the end of the film the two have an incredibly horrifying and heart-wrenching scene together, and you can hear every ounce of tragedy in their voices. They spill their guts out to each other in the second worst way possible (the first being in the literal sense) and every single line is delivered superbly particularly by Affleck. His intonation shifts around but hits the right notes every time, and is a credit to his performance in the movie.

Manchester by the Sea simply envelopes you in grief. You can truly feel it with every moment on screen. Perhaps it is something in the direction that gives it this feel, but part of it can certainly be attributed to the town itself. It is bleak, and lacks colour, and the isolation of this town, in part by the coastline, but also that Lee simply cannot leave reflects his struggle to escape his grief. Watching the film grief envelopes you in the same way that the town envelopes Lee.

It is at this point I credit the screenwriter, also director, Kenneth Lonargen, for producing a screenplay so incredibly down to earth and realistic. However, a major problem comes with creating a film like Manchester by the Sea, especially a character study. The ever present sword suspended over the film - it being boring. And I sympathise with people who found Manchester by the Sea boring. The plot is basically non-existent after the first 20 minutes, and Lonargen ultimately fails to keep up the pace of this movie which is ultimately about a quite abstract concept - grief and the human condition. To say nothing much happens wouldn't be accurate, but is a fair criticism for a movie like this. In this it a film to feel rather than to watch. By this I mean it is something to take in and experience, to feel Lee and Patrick's grief and all the different emotions going on in their head and to feel them, rather than watch them. Because they're not going anywhere - Manchester by the Sea isn't a fairy tale adventure, it's real life.

But it is because of this that I only give it a 4 out of 5.

A harrowing look into deeply complex human emotions and deeply complex human character that transforms the cinematic experience, for better or for worse, to an incredibly realistic degree. With a plethora of clever cinematic devices, and stunning depiction of casual life, it certainly deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. Despite this, the movie struggles to get much done on its thin plot, despite running for over 130 minutes. At times I was bored by the movie, and at times it certainly felt like nothing was happening. It is not a satisfying movie, and nor should it be, but this doesn’t work across the whole run-time. Nonetheless the film was one of the best of 2016 for its remarkable portrayal of human suffering. It isn’t pretty, or fun, but is one of the best tragedies in recent years.

The Grand Budapest Hotel – A rip-roaring ride from days gone by    ★★★½

GBH is the type of film that you watch and smile in almost unconscious glee throughout. It is an adventure movie that is delightfully funny, filled with characters as colourful as the scenery. The use of multi-layered storytelling, though seemingly superficial at first, actually strikes a quite emotional chord and helps the extravagant world building that takes place around this place called the Grand Budapest Hotel. This superficiality is only emphasised by the incredibly bright colour scheme used, which is not often seen in movies. Despite this while GBH hits all the sweet spots an adventure-comedy should, it is seemingly superficial and I struggle to see there being much more to it than its surface.

As you can tell from simply looking at any image from the film or even the poster, the most striking immediate thing about the movie is its incredibly vivid use of colour. Now films tend to alter which colours are more prominent than others, grading and scaling the palette to the cinematographer and director’s will. GBH uses the full spectrum in all its glory. Even the scenes featuring Edward Norton’s army, whose uniforms are all very dark, the surroundings still appear bright and colourful, in stark contrast to the army.

Nonetheless, it’s not all about the aesthetics of GBH. In fact we’re led through a surreal and exciting plot, going from the hotel itself to the frontline of a warzone, a bakery, a mountain peak, a prison, and all as part of this great adventure that you become genuinely invested into. The adventure is executed so well that by the end of it all you feel like you’ve been on the journey with these characters, and in turn gotten to know them as well as they’ve gotten to know each other. To be able to create such a great adventure is almost entirely reliant on the top-notch screenplay by Wes Andersen himself, who even inserts a joke about how convoluted the whole story is. But despite this seeming moment of self-awareness, the fact is that the story has been constructed so well that the audience know exactly what is going on and are not confused by the plot whatsoever. It is great screenwriting that holds the film together.

The story also works so well as a rollercoaster ride because of the characters you meet and get to know. Primarily Ralph Fiennes work as Gustave H was exceptional. Playing a posh hotel concierge with an eye for detail and even sharper eye for discipline, he excels in playing a character that changes internally vastly over the course of the adventure whilst the character attempts to maintain their proper nature. A few characters have distinctive arcs that we watch develop through a very personal lense and having accompanied the two leads on their journey you do really feel a passenger on Wes Anderson’s wild ride, accompanied by a concierge and lobby boy.

The issue is, in my opinion, that there is really not much going on other than that exciting story and engaging characters. Now while many many people may enjoy an adventure flick more than any other type of film and thus adore GBH, that’s just not for me. I need there to be more than this in a movie for me to truly love it. It was certainly a strong and entertaining picture but from my subjective point of view, there needs to be more substance, despite the impeccable style.

So I’ll leave this delightful picture with three and a half, because of the incredible fun that’s to be had in watching it. It’s definitely a film to watch with others and is a shining example of a movie that is good fun but doesn’t have to be a summer blockbuster or superhero flick a-la Kong: Skull Island. Although it wasn’t entirely pleasing for me, its writing is superb and takes the adventure genre to new heights in the same way Raiders of the Lost Ark did over 30 years ago.