Independent film has identity crisis

By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner

"You Can Count on Me" features characters that are on a journey to find themselves. Ironically, the movie cannot decide what it is, or even where it is going.

Where many movies are able to integrate comedy and drama, "You Can Count on Me" cannot find any balance between the two genres. There is no attempt to blend them at all.

Instead, Ken Lonergan, the writer, decides to have great stretches of comedy lasting 15 minutes to half an hour, followed by 10-minute stretches of drama. Lonergan makes the movie feel as if there were two movies going on at the same time.
 
Each of these separate movies is entertaining, but the attempted combination of them does not quite work as a singular unit.

Though there is a general theme of finding oneself, "Count" never does. The whole movie felt jumbled, due to short scenes that neither delivered impact, nor allowed proper time to develop into a full scene.

What is worse, halfway through the movie there is a sudden realization that there is not and never was a plot. The whole movie merely follows the lives of a brother and sister ­ and that is it. Each of the adventures in which they participate is fun in themselves, but combining each of these adventures leaves an empty feeling inside.  The result is a movie that feels patched together.

"You Can Count on Me" follows Sammy Prescott (Laura Linney), a federal loan office in her hometown of Scottsville, NY, who shares a special connection with her brother Terry Prescott (Mark Ruffalo).  Terry Prescott is a stoned-out drifter who goes broke, and asks for his sister's help.

Sammy and Terry go through a series of ups and downs, joys and tribulations as they try to find their place in life. Caught in the middle is Sammy's eight-year-old son, Rudy (Rory Culkin); Sammy's boss, Brian (Matthew Broderick); and Sammy's boyfriend, Bob (Jon Tenney).

The actors and actresses in the movie do their best, despite the script. Linney and Ruffalo react well with their co-stars, who also perform well.

"You Can Count on Me" entertains in both comedic and dramatic parts. The actors and actresses do their best to save a script that cannot decide its purpose in the film.

Paramount Classics

Matthew Broderick, left, and Laura Linney in Kenneth Lonergan's "You Can Count on Me."