It just felt . . . Empty

I mean, I liked Manchester by the Sea, it was a good film. A lot of the characters seemed to act like jerks. I felt bad for Lee and Patrick's situation, but Lee doesn't need to go around punching people and Patrick's off trying to get into the pants of two girls. That made it a bit hard to really like them.

I thought the story was interesting and well written, but after it was over I couldn't help but feel that nothing really happened. Lee's brother dies. Lee becomes the guardian of his nephew. They're both stressed out and don't get along, which is natural because Lee's brother/Patrick's dad just died. They figure things out and it works out about as well as expected. I guess it felt like the conflict could have all been assumed due to the stress of a love one dying, and the resolution felt like a given because eventually everything was figured out and life moved on. It felt like you could have called the movie "Planning a funeral" and it'd sum up most of the plot well.

The acting was good, but I don't think anything was particularly Oscar worthy. Affleck did good, but the role was so mellow that it didn't seem that demanding to me.

I thought the movie was good, but I guess I was waiting for something else to jump out at me after everything I heard about it. I don't think it'd crack my top 5 for the year, but top 10 certainly.