Returning to the Sundance Film Festival 16 years after his acclaimed debut “You Can Count On Me,” Saturday afternoon’s world premiere of “Manchester By the Sea” proved you can count on Kenneth Lonergan to deliver the goods in Park City.
Lonergan’s family drama — by turns heartbreaking and heartwarming — debuted to rapturous response at the Eccles, and could inject life into what has been a dreary sales market thus far. However, buyers have shown patience at Sundance the last few years, with major acquisitions arriving after the festival’s first weekend.
Set in the blue-collar Massachusetts coastal city of Manchester-by-the-Sea, the film stars Casey Affleck as Lee Chandler, a broken man who is drafted to be his nephew Patrick’s legal guardian when his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) dies with his affairs in order.