One of the year’s most pleasant features comes in the form of one of its most morose. “Manchester by the Sea” is the first film from playwright Kenneth Lonergan in five years, and the writer-director has not lost his touch. When he astounded audiences with the convention-bending “Gangs of New York” over fourteen years ago, Lonergan took a big step away from the world of theater. With “Manchester,” it almost seems like familiar ground. Lonergan is on his home turf with the stage-like nature of the film, and he intently uses his advantage.

The way Lonergan crafts a story is similar to the recipe of fellow playwright/screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin (“A Few Good Men,” “The Social Network,” “Steve Jobs”). With conversation draped eloquently across a stage of familiar yet cold settings, the characters that are written tell their stories with moments rather than exclusively dialogue. Through this, Lonergan doesn’t simply put on a show, he displays real life. It is these crisp, dry bits between the characters of “Manchester” that truly give the film its gloss, which covers the otherwise salty, sea-grazed driftwood that is the movie.

Its woodenness does nothing to hinder it, however. Rather, it is the befuddled, parched tone of the tale that makes it worth being told. It follows the life of a post-traumatic Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), an apathetic man from Boston who we meet while he’s working his job as a handyman. He’s suffered the worst life imaginable, and still has the pleasure of facing the death of his brother from the eponymous town on the water. It is here where the story really picks up, when unbeknownst to Lee, his brother has named him the legal guardian of his 16-year-old nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges).

Set from here forward in picturesque, cream-and-periwinkle New England, the movie is mainly about how Lee copes with his past, and present, while juggling his now disconcerting future. His brother’s will lays out a financial plan that will bring Lee from Boston to Manchester, where Patrick’s life is set. This poses a problem for both, as Lee has trouble with un-comfortability, while Patrick refuses to face being uncomfortable, traits which consistently divide and eventually unite the two. Lee is able to find ample comfort in the home of his deceased brother, and slowly takes to the role of Patrick’s guardian, leading to such moments as Lee giving fatherly, cool-dad permission to stern, because-I-said-so no’s.

Their relationship boils down to the boat, which in accordance with the will of Lee’s brother, will not become Patrick’s until he reaches 18. Unsure of how they’ll be able to afford the cost of a boat, or rent it out in its present condition, or even make any necessary repairs to do so, Lee opts to sell it, something Patrick is entirely unwilling to do. Lonergan, being a playwright, is of course using this to shine as a literary artist of the screen. While Lee struggles to face his past any longer, he finds it easier to discard and move on. Patrick, on the other hand, cannot wholly come to grips with the reality he’s now facing, and thinks of the boat as the strongest tie to his father. To both Lee and Patrick, the boat is a reminder, though to Lee, it is a reminder of a time that makes the present harder to live with, while it reminds Patrick of a time which he cannot live without.

The bond that forms between uncle and nephew comes to improve the circumstances that both face, which is evident both in their words and their actions. As Lee paces through the dirtied snow that melts across the sidewalks of Manchester, his past repeatedly catches up with him, only to be dealt with and replaced with the responsibility he now has to his nephew. As Patrick continually tries to distract himself, it is Lee’s fatherlike stoicism that almost forces the nephew to realize reality, which, while shocking at first, cements their connection to both the real world and each other.

Casey Affleck and Lucas Hedges lead a melancholy yet affirming visual poem of grief, isolation, relationships, and responsibility in another masterpiece by Kenneth Lonergan, in one of the most refreshing and much-needed pieces of cinema the year has delivered. “Manchester by the Sea” is in theaters now.