Looking at unspeakable loss up close

WHAT becomes of someone who suffers a loss so unspeakable and is so consumed by grief that it destroys his life and tears away at his soul until all that's left is a broken physical being and an awful, numbing emptiness? Lee Chandler is just such a wretch and in Manchester by the Sea, we witness how a death in the family forces him to confront his tragic past once more.

The film, written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, is a powerful human drama about an ordinary working-class stiff…