Manchester By the Sea

In addition to being a voracious reader, I am also an equally big fan of movies.  I teach a high school film class, one of the best parts of this is choosing one films to watch and study.  So, I have been trying to catch up on all of the Oscar-nominated films I did not see in the theatres.  I recently watched Manchester By the Sea and was underwhelmed.  It was a good film, but I felt it was underwritten.  I know that the director wrote the script too, but this reads like a really good draft for an uncompleted film script.  I thought  the flashbacks didn't truly flesh out the back story of the main characters.
I thought Casey Affleck was good, but I wanted to see more development of him and Michelle Williams.  Yes, we see him trying to kill himself at the police station and we see her resisting his attempts to hug her while she is being put in the ambulance.  I know we can read between the lines, but what exactly did happen to them?  How soon after the death of their children where they divorced?  How long did it take her to remarry?
Finally, after showing us a scene in flashback where Casey Affleck claims he would be a better father for his nephew than the boy's own father, we don't see this referenced again?  Even at the end of the film?
The film left me disappointed, not because it was a bad film, but precisely because it was a good film that left me wanting more.