Manchester by the Sea, Movie Review
- Everyone is trapped in his own world -
Hollywood doesn't produce good films nowadays, but this year, Manchester by the Sea is really a good thing to watch.
Chandler family's tragedy is also a hidden scope of our modern materialistic world culture scene. that's the best picture shows our family structure, of course, those beautiful North America seashore of middle class fishermen, small town life, best to form family and raise kids, the coast line, clear salty sea wind always set spirit free, away from the traffic jam and rush hour noise and mess shit really a dreamy place, and the ocean, the vast fucking ocean surround the seashore residents and their life too, yet people still drift apart, friends, family.
A stupid drunk move, 2 am early morning beer shop, a firewood rolled onto the carpet, started flame, then the furnace blown, that destroyed everything.
We men are never ready for catastrophic events. An old Chinese saying: "Husband and wife are a pair of birds that sharing same fate, but when their time ends they each fly away separately. (夫妻本是同林鸟，大难来时各自飞. Literal Translation: husband and wife are naturally birds of the same woods, when the catastrophe comes they each fly separately.)" Comparing to primitives we somehow lost our bonding skill in this modern world, it used to be whole village people raising their kids, sharing their hunting and gathering survival social structure to deal with climate and nature's challenge, but now we every man is on his own road, the village the clan, the large supporting family system is gone, basically we, everyone of us has to loosen and gradually untie one knot, it's hard; and try to find and fasten another rope and that's difficult too, the story does not end. It's hard to chase ice cream truck; it's hard to make chocolate too. Chandler brothers share closer bond than Patrick and his father, two scenes shows Lee hugging his dead brother and Patrick's act in the morgue. Does love conquer fear, death, our taboo or near or touching relative's dead body? we prepare chicken meal almost everyday, and do you prefer white meat or red?
For 10 years Lee and Kyle drifted apart, of course they'd never discussed about the will. the grief is always there but life must go on. Kyle's life was by the sea, and Lee lived in a basement in another city. two failed marriages, two brothers dealt their own problems. and Patrick wanted the sea, his father's life, be a fisherman. They were lonely and helpless. and the last scene, Lee and Patrick fishing, I wouldn't dare to imagine their long road after that.
We all live in our own world, to run away if we must, or live some kind of legacy, or chase childhood dream, that seems not really satisfy us nor fulfill our purpose, and our family is just too small, that no matter where we go how big our house is, we the 2 parents and kids family can only huddle together, duck under a shelter and wait for the storm to pass. One stupid mistake, we are fucking doomed, and the only happiness are just a few fleeting moments that gone forever. And our distance stretches, as the universe expands, all into dark nothingness.
Maybe we've never mastered the skill of bonding, we have punchlines, catch phrases, and endless metaphors, but we've never truly conversed. We are all lonely planets constantly spinning in our own meaningless course.
I wish I were those two teen girls, make up their minds to stay over, to give consent, to live in the moment, say: "So, do you wanna fuck me or not?"
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