This review contains spoilers.
A playwright originally, Lonergan understands that people rarely say what they mean, especially if their feelings are raw, and both Lee and Patrick protect themselves with tough talk. This posturing keeps their feelings in check, and when this pretense fails, their encounters are more clumsy than cathartic. In a humorous scene, Patrick breaks down over a piece of meat in the freezer that reminds him of his father’s refrigerated corpse, and Lee kicks in Patrick’s bedroom door to offer awkward consolation. Later, Lee explains to Patrick in four simple words that his anguish precludes him from staying in Manchester: “I can’t beat it.” Though thankful for each other’s presence, Lee and Patrick would rather keep their emotions capped. Still, they seem to know—like Sammy and Terry in You Can Count on Me and Lisa and her mother in Margaret—that their connection, fortified through loss, is the one true constant in their lives.
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan
