Starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, Matthew Broderick, Jon Tenney, Kenneth Lonergan, Gaby Hoffman. Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Sammy and Terry Prescott are brother and sister, made closer by the fact their parents were killed in an automobile accident when they were both fairly young. Sammy (Linney) lives in the old family home in Scottsville, a little town in upstate New York, with her 8-year-old son Rudy (Culkin). Her brother Terry (Ruffalo) has left Scottsville and has drifted from job to job, across the U.S.A. from Alaska to Florida. He is in the midst of dumping his young girlfriend (Hoffman), and takes a bus to see his sister because he needs some money to take care of the girlfriend's pregnancy. Planning only to stay a day, Terry decides to do a little construction work in Scottsville and stay with his sister. Sammy is in an on-again, off-again, now back on-again relationship with Bob (Tenney) a good-looking but boring salesman who she is not sure she wants to be with. To complicate matters, an uptight new bank manager Brian (Broderick) arrives at the branch where she is loan manager. Annoying and a bit of a control freak, she neverless begins a torrid little affair with him, despite the fact he's married with a pregnant wife and she doesn't even like him. She attends church every Sunday. She occasionally chats with the decent and kindly minister Ron (Lonergan), but is more interested in him helping Terry than herself. And while Sammy wants to protect Terry and set him on track, she becomes increasingly frustrated by Terry's impulsiveness and his impact on Rudy. She is also out of sorts because of the bit of a mess her life currently is in. Like last year's excellent The Straight Story, You Can Count On Me tells a simple, straight-forward story without gimmicks or histrionics. The people are real and the screenplay is written such that characters actually communicate with one another, not with showy, high-minded speeches or one-liners but simply and realistically. The title refers to the unspoken bond between Sammy and Terry, and Sammy's desire to protect Terry from the self-destructive things he does to himself. But she has no clue how to help him - she tells him early on she wishes their Mom was here, because maybe she could get through to him to straighten his life out. He quietly tells her he wishes she was here too. Neither has yet healed from the loss of their parents. Terry hasn't grown up much since the car crash. He's still rebelling, without exactly knowing what he's mad at. Sammy hasn't progressed that far either. She too misses the parental instruction she lost in her youth. When she confesses to Reverend Ron, she berates him because the church isn't hard enough on sin anymore. She says she'd rather be told of eternal damnation and the fires of hell to scare her into behaving than the kinder, gentler modern notion of discussing the reasons behind her sin. And Sammy has a unique and not entirely implausible take on the reasons behind her sexual escapades. Terry has lost any faith in religion or God, but hasn't found any other source of direction to replace it. One of the central conflicts between Sammy and Terry concerns Sammy's desire to protect her son from knowing too much - knowledge of her ex-husband and the disappointments life can bring. Terry, on the other hand, thinks Rudy should have no illusions about life and people. The best part about the movie is that the characters in the film are not judged and there are no pat answers for them. As in real life, they are left to pick up the pieces and muddle on as best they can. The performances are first-rate throughout. Linney, usually the ice-princess in such solid films as The Truman Show, plays Sammy sympathetically but with no effort to hide or soften her rough edges. Sammy is a person who loves her son but will do things she knows is not right in her love life. Stage veteran Ruffalo skillfully conveys the boyish immaturity of Terry, but lets his overall decency and well-meaningness shine through. Both leads are worthy of Oscar consideration. Macauley's younger brother Rory is solid and understated. Unlike the wisecracking, no-it-all kids that often populate films, Rudy acts his age, displaying the innocence and the capability to be quietly hurt. Broderick nails the officious, slave-to-the-rules managerial mentality, all the while cheating on his wife on the side, and then telling Sammy their private liason should have no effect on how they interact at work. You Can Count On Me is one of the best movies this year, and while this has not been a very good year for movies, this film would be worth seeing in any year. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page