You Can Count On Me (2000)
family drama
directed by : Kenneth Lonergan
featuring : Laura Linney - Mark Ruffalo - Rory Culkin - Matthew Broderick - Jon Tenney
running time : 1 hour 49 minutes
Kenneth Lonergan, the co-screenwriter for Analyze This (1999), makes his directorial debut with this sensitive portrait of a pair of grown siblings. Sammy and Terry Prescott (Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo) were orphaned as children after their parents were killed in a car accident. Since then, the two have taken drastically divergent paths. Sammy is a single mother who leads a quiet, stable life in a small town in upstate New York. A fiercely protective mother, she shields her young son Rudy (Rory Culkin) from all information about his absentee father. She is also involved with Bob (Jon Tenney), a well-meaning but less-than-exciting mate, both in and out of bed. Terry, by contrast, is a troubled, self-destructive soul eking out a nomadic existence. When he abandons his pregnant girlfriend to borrow money from his sister, Sammy finds her stable world disrupted. A bond soon develops between Terry and Rudy; over the objections of his mother, Terry takes the tyke fishing and shares old family secrets. Meanwhile, Terry's presence inspires Sammy to break out of her quiet life. This film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.

One of the greatest strengths of lonergan's gentle, affecting tale of a pair of reunited siblings is its desire to rekindle the joy of hearing sensible characters simply talking to one another. The film never missteps in telling its identifiable yet unconventional tale, and Lonergan (in his first directorial effort) makes every motion warm and fully realized. Linney and Ruffalo imbue their roles with heartfelt truth and realistic impulses, grounding the film and relating its important familial themes to just about any audience. You Can Count On Me is reminiscent of what independent cinema used to resemble in the salad days of the 1960s and '70s, with its small-scale but concise storytelling and quality performances. The film was a big hit at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, sharing the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature with Karyn Kusama's Girlfight .