The latest film from award-winning writer/director Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me, Margaret), Manchester by the Sea concerns Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), a reticent fixit man living in sullen loneliness, returning to his seaside New England hometown after being informed of his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) passing away from a fatal illness. Lee must tend to the affairs of his sibling and take guardianship of his nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges), but holds no desire to remain in the area, as he is emotionally wounded and haunted by the events that caused him to leave years earlier.

While Kenneth Lonergan has only directed three films in the last sixteen years, he has proven to be a filmmaker worth giving a damn about, thanks to the richness in passion and technique on display in his work. Manchester by the Sea is no exception, and in many ways, represents the best of Lonergan’s abilities as a storyteller. The film doesn’t contain an abundance of overpowering sequences or surprise twists for that matter, what makes the film so special is how it acts as a collection of small events and actions that obtain stronger resonance over time. You won’t find any Oscar-clip ready speeches or monologues here, rather Manchester becomes a sensitively struggle of accepting the harsh realities that come in the wake of tragedy.

It’s the characters, and most certainly the acting at hand here that makes the film what it is. Casey Affleck gives a career best performance as Lee that is full of silent sorrow, where his emotions are suppressed in some instances but explode with a mighty furor in the next. His representation of a grief-stricken man plagued by his own past is devastating but all so entrancing at the same time.