Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6328 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-02
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
You Can Count on Me starts with a terrible car crash that instantly orphans a little boy and his older sister. At film's end, that boy, now a grown-up nomad and ne'er-do-well, takes off by Greyhound bus after a brief reunion with his sister, who lives at permanent anchor in their unspoiled hometown. The sibling saga that unreels between wrenching collision and bittersweet separation celebrates the idiosyncratic ways wounded folk like Terry (Mark Ruffalo) and Sammy (Laura Linney) put one foot in front of the other, both energised and hamstrung by the knowledge that nothing is ever certain in the road-movie of life. During his visit, Terry roils Sammy's becalmed existence, mostly by "fathering"--for good and ill--her overprotected eight-year-old (Rory Culkin), sneaking him out to play empowering bar pool, later introducing him to the weaselly dad he's fantasised into a superhero. Sammy starts a torrid affair with her married boss at the bank (Matthew Broderick gives delicious bureaucratic smarm) and considers marrying her sometime suitor (Jon Tenney), sweetly dull yet dependable.

The narrative peaks here are human-sized, elevated by gentle humour and clear-eyed faith in the existential importance of these intersecting small-town lives. Linney is simply superb as Sammy, wild girl gone good, involuntarily "mothering" every man in her life. An authentic original, newcomer Ruffalo gives his modern-day Huck Finn a drawling, James Dean delivery tuned somewhere between a screwup's whine and the twang of pothead wisdom. (Hard to think of another recent film that so deftly nails down the rich dynamics of everyday conversation--the starts and stops, circumlocutions, clichés, sudden veers into revelation and eloquence.) This is that rarity, an action movie of the heart: no explosions or epiphanies, yet everything evolves through the catalysts of character and experience. --Kathleen Murphy, Amazon.com

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 English
Dolby Digital 2.0
English

Synopsis
Set in a small town in upstate New York, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME looks at a brother and sister who grew up together as orphans but now face life with very different perspectives. Sammy (Laura Linney) works at the local bank. Most of her attention goes into raising her 8-year-old son, Rudy (Rory Culkin), and drifting in a tepid romance with Bob (Jon Tenney). The first disruption to her dutiful routine arrives in the form of new bank manager Brian (Matthew Broderick), intent on whipping his employees into shape. Then Sammy's wayward brother, Terry (Mark Ruffalo) shows up after a long absence, and her happiness quickly turns sour when she realizes he has only come to ask for money--again. But with all the elements for a backwater soap opera in place, the story instead becomes a subtle portrait of good intentions and fractured relationships.
First-time director Ken Lonergan was already a noted Hollywood screenwriter (ANALYZE THIS), but he saved his screenplay for himself. Avoiding both big-budget maudlin and low-budget posturing, he steers COUNT ON ME straight to the gut with an artful balance of pain and comedy. A good number of excellent performances, especially by Ruffalo as the screw-up Terry, turn the film into a remarkably honest and moving experience.

Customer Reviews

A MUST SEE FAMILY DRAMA...
This is a tautly directed family drama with superlative performances by an outstanding ensemble cast. Laura Tinney gives a strong, well nuanced performance as Sammy, the put upon single parent of an eight year old boy. Jon Tenney gives a compelling portrayal as Tinney's stalwart, though dull, suitor. Matthew Broderick is terrific as Tinney's officious, insecure new boss with whom she ends up having a passionate affair. Mark Ruffalo gives an amazing performance as Sammy's sensitive, errant brother, Terry, who tosses a monkey wrench into his sister's seemingly well ordered life, throwing it into total chaos. Rory Culkin is wonderful as Tinney's quiet little boy, who believes his long missing father to be much more that he actually is.

The story takes place in a rural locale. The opening scene shows a car accident in which a man and a woman are killed. The next scene shows a law enforcement officer breaking the news of their deaths to a young girl who is babysitting her younger brother. The movie now goes forward in time. The brother, Terry, now grown, is returning home after a long sojourn away. Home is where Sammy, his sister, lives with her eight year old son. She lives in their childhood home. Sammy and Terry have their reunion, but it is not the one that they each dreamt of having.

What happens to them, when Terry comes home, is a rich tapestry of human emotions, which is deftly woven into a complex family drama. This character driven film is compelling, keeping the viewer fully absorbed, as the story unfolds. Well nuanced, memorable performances provide the icing on the cake. This movie was a veritable surprise and a most enjoyable one, at that.

Great performances, great film.
Kenneth Lonergan is a man with many influential frineds in Hollywood due to his flourishing career as a screenwriter par excellence. You Can Count On Me features rising Hollywood stars Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo as well as Matthew Broderick, a college friend of Lonergan's. Linney plays Sammy, a bank worker in a small town whose drifter brother, Terry, played by Ruffalo, is about to come back into her life. The relationship between Terry and Sammy is a close one, due in part to them having lost their parents in a car crash when they were young children. Sammy lives alone with her young son, and a large part of the film focuses on the blossoming relationship between Sammy's young son and his tearaway Uncle. Lonergan also focuses on the way that seeing Terry almost seems to reawaken a rebellious streak in Sammy, in both subtle and obvious ways. You Can Count On Me is a self-contained, small film, where Lonergan shows an alarming level of assuredness behind the camera, but it his script and his flair with his cast that stand out above everything else. A triumphant debut.

Just about as good as movies get.
This film is about the relationship between a pair of adult siblings who have an unusual bond. This bond has been fostered by a childhood which was scarred by their parents' death in a car crash. Subsequently the brother played by Mark Ruffalo is a drifter many years later who, after being in trouble many times decides to visit his sister (Laura Linney) in a sleepy, almost comatose town in middle America. Given this synopsis one may think there is nothing much going for this film but to disregard it without seeing it is like dismissing Good Will Hunting because its about maths. You can count on me is superbly written by Keith Lonergan and features truly outstanding performances by the two main protaganists: Ruffalo and Linney, not to mention Matthew Broderick who is excellent as Linneys boss. Its not often one leaves the cinema and feels truly touched but this film certainly did that for me. If only more films could be as intelligent and genuinely emotive as this.