Assignment 17 - Ella Franklin

I'm having trouble making a Rotten Tomatoes account so I'll just put a review here.

I saw "Manchester by the Sea" at the Kentucky on Saturday. The Kentucky proved to be a perfect venue to have my heart broken into pieces!

Manchester by the Sea is unbearably sad. It's a wonderful movie, well-acted, original plot, but it is so sad. But I think, with that, there is something to be said for a movie that makes you feel something. I don't feel a lot of things, but this movie did. In the moment that the really sad part is revealed, I felt like my body was just completely drained of any feeling. It was so shocking that it honestly just drained the life out of me. But I don't think a movie has ever made me feel that before. It wasn't sadness, it was complete shock.

There's a special way of constructing a plot, and delivering lines, and creating visuals that all align to make the viewer actually feel something in response to the plot. In "Manchester," everything aligns perfectly to shine a bright light on every dark part of your soul and awaken it from the caverns of your being and shocks you to face them. That's way too dramatic, but the point is, you will walk out of the theatre and immediately say, "Well, that was sad."

The plot was completely original and I couldn't compare it to any other movie I've seen if I tried. Casey Affleck is a great actor. I liked him in "Good Will Hunting," but he didn't really get a lot of screen time in that. This was a really good role for him. Sad suits him well.