The last words that they ever say to each other seem insignificant. A one-line discussion about superficiality and then disaster strikes for the Prescotts. And now their two children, Terry and Samantha, are orphaned. About thirty years later, Samantha is a single working mother and Terry is a drifter who manages (barely) to stay out of trouble. Terry comes to visit Samantha in the small New England town of Scottsville, where they grew up. Samantha still lives in the same house, but has a (somewhat) steady job in order to support her son Rudy. Rudy and Terry form a strange bond that breaks and mends again and again, making Samantha angrier and angrier. Terry takes Rudy out to a pool hall late at night to shoot some stick and he even takes him to meet his father, something Samantha has been avoiding for 8 years.
You Can Count on Me is one of the most solid human stories I have seen on the screen all year. Rather than guide his characters through each scene to make sure that we understand the situation writer/director Kenneth Lonergan (who also plays the priest in the film) allows the people to explore their own worlds. Lonergan is not judgmental, although we think he might be when Samantha suggests to Terry that he needs to find religion to have some guidance in his life. Lonergan then invalidates Samantha’s own intentions by showing us the immoral things that she does on a regular basis.
Lonergan does something very interesting in You Can Count on Me. Rather than give us the unnecessary dialogue that we have heard countless times in small human dramas, or even in large sweeping epics, he cuts away before the people can even say a word. We know what’s going on, we can see the situation is not good, or is rather pleasant, we know what is going to be said. Lonergan allows the scene to play out precisely when we don’t know what is going to be said. And this technique drives the film forward more powerfully than, say, the waterlogged songs and superfluous dialogue in Dancer in the Dark.
There is very little missing from You Can Count on Me, the film is never plain (although it takes a stale concept and makes it fresh). It was recognized at the Sundance Film Festival as it shared the Best Picture prize with Girlfight. You Can Count on Me is a very solid film, a good human tale about family and relationships that is appropriate for the whole family. (A word of qualification: this film is Rated-R for language and brief scenes of sex, but it has more social relevance and more familial film going value than, say, Mission Impossible 2 or Bring It On which were both rated PG-13.)
A brother and sister, orphaned at a young age, live in upstate N.Y. The divorced sister is very responsible with a young son. The brother is charming ...More at HotMovieSale.com
Winner of the Best Picture and Best Screenplay awards at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, You Can Count On Me has been hailed as the best American mov...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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