You Can Count on Me Review
by "Berge Garabedian" (joblo AT sympatico DOT ca)September 10th, 2000
YOU CAN COUNT ON ME
RATING: 8/10 --> Great movie
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A touching character drama about a brother and sister questioning the ways of their life and spirituality from the guy who wrote ANALYZE THIS and ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE? Yup, believe it! This film tied for the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival with another fall release entitled GIRLFIGHT, and features a breakout performance from actor Mark Ruffalo. Remember the name. Of course, you already know the name of the executive producer on this project...one Martin Scorsese.
PLOT:
A carefree brother comes back home to visit his morally upright single mom sister and decides to stay awhile. Their day-to-day goings-on is what fills our time together with brother essentially trying to "find himself" while making friends with her young son, and sister trying to figure out which fella she'd rather keep dating while simultaneously not losing her job at the bank. Slowly but surely, their respective traits begin to rub off on one another.
CRITIQUE:
A small movie set in a small town delivers various big elements including top-notch performances from its two leads, extremely effective character development all around and a poignant message dipped with the importance of love, family, relationships and spirituality. This is obviously not a typical Hollywood picture and surely not for everyone, but definitely one to see for anyone who appreciates superior character studies, feels confused, overwhelmed or bored about their own life, and is curious about the familial foundation which supports this entire movie. This isn't a very upbeat film. It does contain a handful of lighter moments, but is basically a movie that feels sort of somber all the way through but doesn't ever really get boring. The force of the writing is the main reason for that, with the superior performances set forth by all, straddling in as a close second. Major kudos go out to Mark Ruffalo, who completely inhabits his role as the loose younger brother with the knack for getting into trouble, as well as Laura Linney, playing the full role of mother, sister, lover and employee to a tee. The excellent rapport between the two leads also makes you glad to be spending some time with them.
The film also offers a solid outing for Rory Culkin in a pivotal role of the son in the movie, and Matthew Broderick delivering yet another small but effective performance on his end (dude, it's time to put films like GODZILLA and INSPECTOR GADGET behind you once and for all!). The film isn't really about anything in particular, plot-wise that is. It moves from moment to moment, sort of like a "week in the life of" you or me. But the crux of the story is really simmering under the covers, the relationship between brother and sister, an emotional attachment that isn't really discussed much in film nowadays. The two kids grow up as orphans and maintain different standards of living, one very opposite from the other. The truth is that neither one of them really knows exactly what they're doing (perhaps because of the lack of parental guidance), but the love between them is never in doubt. This is one of those smaller pictures that I really love balancing off against those big, loud, smack-down Hollywood flicks. It's insightful, it's emotional and it actually means something! Okay, so I might not be selling this film as best as I could, but all I know is that it touched me with its solid performances, great insight and universal message. One to see.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars:
Writer/director Ken Lonergan also plays a small part in this movie. He is the priest. He is primarily known as a playwright but has written several screenplays including a co-writing stint on ANALYZE THIS and a full-blown screenwriting credit on ROCKY & BULLWINKLE. His wife, J. Smith-Cameron is also in this picture. She plays Mabel.
Actress Laura Linney is probably best remembered for playing Jim Carrey's wife in THE TRUMAN SHOW. Clint Eastwood picked her for the part of Kate Whitney in his movie ABSOLUTE POWER after seeing her performance in PRIMAL FEAR.
Long-time Martin Scorsese producer and ex-wife, Barbara DeFina, is one of the producers on this project. Martin Scorsese is also one of its executive producers.
This is 11-year old Rory Culkin's second movie. He played the "young Richie" his brother Macauley Culkin's RICHIE RICH movie. He also has another acting brother named Kieran.
Review Date: September 4, 2000
Director: Ken Lonergan
Writer: Ken Lonergan
Producers: Barbara DeFina, John Hart, Larry Meistrich, Jeff Sharp Actors: Laura Linney as Sammy Prescott
Mark Ruffalo as Terry Prescott
Rory Culkin as Rudy
Matthew Broderick as Brian
Genre: Drama
Year of Release: 2000
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(c) 2000 Berge Garabedian
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