So aside from Affleck, whos acting was flawless. I could not get past these two things that ruined the story for me.
1. In Ma they dont sell alcohol past 11 pm, and bopze insnt sold in conveniece stores. You have to go to a liquor store.
2. They show that the baby slept in the bed next to the mother, so if she was able to escape the fire. Why not the infant as well? No doubt she would have grabbed the son or the firefighters as well.
Ugh - Those aren't big plot holes. They aren't even plot holes at all!!!
Look up what the definition of what a plot hole is and you'll see you're wrong.
Who cares what time stores close? If you let the time a store closes affect your enjoyment of a movie, you should probably stop watching movies for the rest of your life. Maybe this store broke the law? WTF would anyone care?
There's no such thing as time travel, super heroes, zombies, terminators or ghosts - Are all movies that feature them guilty of having "big plot holes"?
Maybe by the time of the fire, the baby was in a different room. Have you ever survived a house fire? I imagine it's quite a s#i+show, so lots of crazy things happen when trying to escape.
Any inconsitency that inteferes with the logic of the plot is an plot hole, where would the baby have gone? Why would he go out for beer if they dont sell it past 11pm? Im drunk plenty of times and am still aware i cant buy it past a certain hour.
Logic would dictate that in the real world he would have never left the house in the first place. And i doubt they all of a sudden moved the crib upstairs.
Also the score was terrible.
There's always possible answers to this type of thing. Like maybe a friend of his worked at the store where he bought the beer so he let him have it after 11PM.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
True, but thats leaving the audience to assume a lot in my opinion. I'm not saying everything need to be spelled out, but some explanation would have been nice.
shareHe said he went out to get beer. Poking out of the top of the grocery bag was a bag of Huggies. Went for beer, came back with diapers.
a waste of time. or rather terrible.
shareAlso to address your zombie comment. Its different when a sci fi or horror movie does ridiculous *beep* They set their own rules in the universe its built aroud.
Manchester by the sea tries to be a realistic film about a mans grief,and guilt about about killing his family by accident.
It is held to a higher standard than say, a film like the avengers, or batman v superman, which are just schlocky action comic book films..
I think they said that she passed out. It's also possible that since she was adult that she was able to survive smoke inhalation that might kill an infant.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
Thats a valid argument, i didnt think about smoke inhalation.
shareIn the movie they mentioned she was found "passed out" down stairs (from smoke inhalation). I would suppose she was (waiting on him to safely return and fell asleep) in the area that the ping pong game was held, or the entry level living room. Where the booze was sold was decided by an appropriate shooting location. When that's the case, the truth about area liquor laws takes a back seat. Good job mentioning those details though - A movie this good deserves examination.
shareThe moment when they got both kids out in the body bags and he falls down, it clearly shows that the paper bag had kids diapers and not beer! He was high and drunk and went to get beer without noticing the time. He couldn't and got diaper for the baby instead. It was clear in that shot.
As for the baby not saved, they say the wife was found passed out in the living room. So I think it could be:
A- She could have went down to check what's causing the smoke and passed out from suffocation.
B- She was drunk there and did drugs too and passed out, then found by the fire fighters.
Well, I think that in the script the baby is upstairs and Randi is downstairs, and I also think that Lee was always mad at Randi because she escaped quickly from the burning house and she didn't care about getting out the children.
shareWell, if this level of nitpickery is going to spoil a movie for you, I've got a thousand wooden matches I'd like you to arrange in neat rows and columns. Anyway, it's all explained in the context of the movie. He goes out at 3 AM to get more beer, too drunk to drive or remember or care that it's after hours(by his own admission), and comes back to the burning house with a bag of baby supplies.
During the police interview he explains that the wife sleeps downstairs and the kids upstairs; that he can't use the central heat because it makes the air too dry and gives his wife migraines; it was too cold upstairs so he started a fire in the fireplace.
In the scenes with the baby in the same room as the wife, she is sick in bed and Lee is not home (working). So, she MUST stay in the same room, in bed, so that she can watch over and care for the baby, plus, it's the middle of the day.
i have noticed in recent years a number of times seeing people calling out movies for having plot holes, and then follow it up with the worst examples of plot holes!
This is another one of those times.
I am not trying to call the OP out so much as I am trying to understand why this has become such a "thing."
This film is so brilliantly restrained and focused, that it makes me wonder how the OP's claims could even scratch the surface of anyone's thoughts in this lovely film.
It's all good; I'm glad the OP started this thread as it offers a chance for me to love this film even more than I already do!
He said, in police station, that she was downstairs on the couch. The firemen pulled her out, the furnace blew, they couldn't go back in
I think you're the opposite of paranoid, I think you walk around with the delusion people like you.
He lived within walking distance of the store. Maybe he's buddies with the guy & they disregarded the law.
shareThis isn't nitpicking at all, it's a big plot hole when you think about it. The trip to the store is a huge part of the film so the reason behind it should make sense. He reveals the reason while being interviewed by the police. That's why the friend working at the liquor store doesn't hold water. The police should have questioned why he went to buy beer at 3am. They even said he'd be free to go assuming his story checks out. But it doesn't. Huge blunder. He could have said he was going to the store to get anything at all and it would work. Except something they can't sell at 3am.
shareRemember, he was amped up on coke. You don't leave the house to buy diapers at 0300, but you do go on a beer run so you can drink yourself through jonesing for coke.
shareBut if you notice his bag in the subsequent scenes, you'll notice "not beer" things inside. Most particularly, a package of diapers for the baby. What I think happened is that he left the house with the intent to buy beer, arrived at the store and realized how late it was. So, instead of buying beer, he buys other things (like diapers). That makes what he says at the police station not a falsehood. He *went* to the store to buy beer. The fact that he was too wasted to drive indicates that he might also have been too wasted to realize that the store wouldn't be selling alcohol that late. And the cop's comment about checking out his story makes sense too: they interview the clerk, clerk says, "Dude came in around 2:30, tried to buy beer but couldn't since it was so late, bought diapers instead, I think he was a little high." That pretty much corroborates what Lee says.
The plot hole (and I'm not so sure on your definition of plot hole, but we'll go with it for now) in that part of the story is that he skips the, "I forgot you can't actually buy beer that late" part when he's at the precinct.
Sorry for responding to this so late. Just saw the movie last night.