Critics raving about Casey Affleck in ‘Manchester by the Sea'

The guy Casey Affleck plays in “Manchester by the Sea” - Lee Chandler, an apartment building janitor and handyman - is broken, sad to the core. A startling tragedy has made him who he is today, and as writer-director Kenneth Lonergan's beautifully constructed, brutally resonant film flashes back to Lee's past, audiences can see the daunting prospects that face him, the chance for hope or grim resignation.

Affleck, who was on the receiving end of wild accolades a decade ago for his twin performances in 2007's “Gone Baby Gone” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (for which he received an Academy Award supporting actor nomination), is getting that kind of attention again. His performance in “Manchester by the Sea” is haunting, unforgettable, filled to the brim with heartache -but not in any kind of heavy-handed or histrionic way. Affleck just carries the weight of his character's grief in everything he does.

How did he shrug off such sorrow at the end of the shooting day?

“I'm not quite good enough to be able to do that, to turn it on and off when you show up in the morning, when you go home at night,” Affleck said on the phone from Los Angeles last week. “On the other hand, I'm not one of those people who makes a big show out of staying in character and only wanting to be called by his name, and walking around like a crazy person.

“You put a lot into the performance, but the performance also puts something into you,” he said. “And, over the course of the movie, having played that character day in and day out - especially one who is in such a funk and such a particular attitude - that funk and that attitude lingers inside of you a little bit.

“And so it isn't like we would wrap and then go out and have fun . .. Everyone was working really hard. Really long days. So we'd mostly just go home and sleep it off. Get ready to start again.”

“Everyone” includes Michelle Williams, who plays Lee's wife in the film; Kyle Chandler as Lee's brother; and Lucas Hedges, who has the role of Lee's nephew - a smart, sort of smart-aleck New England high school kid. In “Manchester,” Lee is presented with the opportunity, the responsibility, of looking after his brother's son. Hedges, who has had significant parts in Wes Anderson's “Moonrise Kingdom” and Jason Reitman's “Labor Day,” shines. He and Affleck project the easy rapport of kin.

“Lucas was cast after six auditions, I believe - only two of which I was a part of,” Affleck said. “He's an exceptionally mature, smart, sensitive, talented guy.”

Affleck, younger brother of somebody named Ben, was just about the same age Hedges is now - 19 - when he made his screen debut as Joaquin Phoenix's sociopathic comrade and coconspirator in the 1995 Gus Van Sant/Nicole Kidman black comedy “To Die For.”

From there, Affleck went on to forge an independent path, steering clear, for the most part, of the Hollywood blockbusters that have marked his sibling's higher-profile career. Brother Ben directed him in the taut Boston kidnapping mystery “Gone Baby Gone.” He was part of the cool-cat troupe of Steven Soderbergh's “Ocean's Eleven” franchise. He was chilling, scary, playing the sexually violent small-town lawman in the little-seen-but-unforgettable noir “The Killer Inside Me.”

In early September, Affleck was one of the actor honorees at the high-profile Telluride Film Festival. He was the subject of a whole tribute: clips from his films, an award presented by Lonergan.

For someone who projects an air of modesty and humility, was all of that high-wattage attention uncomfortable? Strange?

Affleck pauses on the phone. Finally, he responds.

“It felt really nice, I'll tell you!” he said loudly, laughing.

“I had never won anything. I was thinking back in my life if there were any - what hardware I had accumulated over the course of my life.

“I've got one Little League trophy and I've got one from 2014, when my baseball team won the Los Angeles City Men's Recreational Baseball League championship. So when Kenny gave me this gold medal and chain at Telluride, that was a new feeling. It was great. I didn't feel funny about it at all.”