Review of You Can Count on Me (2000) by Leighton T — 14 May 2010

The brilliant Kenneth Longeran writes and directs a story that subtly shows the distinct lines of a brother-sister relationship intertwined with how they're dealing with their own lives separately. Both Linney and Ruffalo are terrific and inhabit their characters, especially Ruffalo who does make his performance showy, which could've been easy, but rather lived in; and Linney is so natural in her affectations, she makes a simple character become complex before your eyes.

There is an insightfulness here that is so sharp you can easily miss it. You don't really realize how much it pulls you in and affects you and that's the film's best aspect. Instead of turning its characters on their emotional heads, it does that to you and I was quietly blown away.