manchester by the sea left me with this overwhelming sense that some grief never really goes away, especially when it is tangled with guilt and the knowledge that one different choice could have changed everything. watching lee live with the loss of everything he loved was devastating, because it was not a dramatic tragedy, it was an ordinary mistake with irreversible consequences. i thought maybe he would find redemption in taking care of his nephew, but the film is brutally honest about how some people just cannot rebuild themselves, no matter how much life gives them another chance. that final acceptance that he cannot beat it is heartbreaking but strangely human. sometimes life does not heal you, it just moves forward while you learn to live with the pain.