Affleck carries the film – with the help of that jaw: Manchester By The Sea reviewed

Everyone in Hollywood knows that if you want some good jaw-clenching you go to an Affleck brother. To older brother Ben for the big budget moves, for a chin dimple that looks good in a bow-tie or Batsuit. And to younger brother Casey for something a little more low key. Casey may have the jaw that is less defiantly handsome, a chin that is a little smaller, weaker and more upturned, but that jaw’s acting skills in Manchester By The Sea are off the charts.

As Lee, a man withdrawn and weighed down by grief amid the beautiful but bitter frost of a coastal Massachusetts town, Affleck’s Oscar glory seems assured, particularly following his Golden Globe win. There’s a single scene, with Michelle Williams as Lee’s ex-wife Randy, that could win awards all by itself, where she talks and cries and meanwhile Affleck barely says a word, casting his sad eyes to the horizon, desperately shifting his chin this way and that, looking for an exit.