is a very small role, but grounds an important scene that gives a lot of information about characterisation and plot points.

Some critics have taken issue with the way in which women are depicted in this film – even going so far as to suggest that the writer-director of the piece, Kenneth Lonergan, has a deep-seated issue with the female sex. For me, nothing could be further from the truth – and this a viewpoint that comes from thinking critically about the male characters. Not to put too fine a point on it, but with few exceptions, the male characters in Manchester-By-The-Sea are all deeply objectionable human begins.  Clearly, they all have some redeeming features – they are not all evil masterminds, hellbent on death and destruction, for example – but overall, they are terrible...

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