Fallen and Alone in "Manchester by the Sea"

In Kenneth Lonergan's new film, Manchester by the Sea, Casey Affleck plays Lee, a broken man who, after the death of his older brother, is yanked back to his hometown and forced to take care of his sixteen-year-old nephew Patrick. There are complications, of course, including the fact that Lee is adrift, tied most tightly to a tragic past that has left him unmoored. At one point, Patrick considers moving in with his estranged mother. When he sees her and her new husband at lunch for the first time in years, an image of Jesus floats on the wall and a sea of tchotchkes proclaims her born-again faith. The meal does not go well, and as Uncle Lee drives him home, Patrick reports that his mother is now a Christian. “We're Christians too, you know,” Lee replies. “Catholics are Christians too.”