You Can Count on Me **** (2000, Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Rory Culkin, Jon Tenney, Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Ryan) – Classic Movie Review 4464

Writer-director Kenneth Lonergan’s 2000 film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actress. It won the Sundance 2000 Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Circle, Writers Guild of America and National Board of Review awards for Best Screenplay of 2001, and the American Film Institute awards for Best Film and Best New Writer.

Naming it Movie of the Year, the AFI said: ‘Lonergan surprises time and again with his affecting story of a complicated, funny and emotional sister/brother relationship. Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo create heart-breakingly real characters in this under-explored thematic territory.’

Oscar nominated Laura Linney stars as a single mother called Sammy Prescott living in the Catskills who has her life turned upside down when her wayward brother Terry (Mark Ruffalo) re-appears. Truthful, affecting, warm-hearted, worthwhile drama, You Can Count on Me has fine dialogue, good characters and excellent performances by Linney, Ruffalo and Matthew Broderick, as well as Rory Culkin, Jon Tenney, Gaby Hoffmann and Amy Ryan.

Linney has three Oscar nominations so far, for this, Kinsey (2004) and The Savages (2007).

Broderick appears again in Lonergan’s 2016 film Manchester by the Sea.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4464

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