Review of You Can Count on Me (2000) by Eric F — 10 May 2008

I was a bit disappointed in this one.

The script was very good, and Ruffalo and Linney both had absolutely wonderful performances. They had great chemistry together and because of that the movie flowed very well and it was believable. I'm a big fan of both of them and haven't ever seen them be anything short of stellar. Very good performances by Rory Culkin and Matthew Broderick, as well.

However, I must say, I never found this to be particularly engaging.

The film is composed of your standard building blocks of this genre - bum brother/responsible sister, love/hate office relationships, single mother under lots of stress, etc. The characters themselves are all cliches and in that way seem a bit stale when we first meet them. While this doesn't necessarily make it a bad film by any means (cliches are cliche for a reason... they always work), I found myself bored and underwhelmed by everything that was happening.

Although the script itself does have plenty of twists and turns that give it a complete sense of unpredictability, it still was hard for me to be anything past mildly interested. It all just seemed a bit dull.

I didn't like that there was absolutely no resolution or redemption of the characters by the end of the film. I understand that the film isn't about necessarily solving things, but more about coping and dealing with things... however, by the end of the film the characters had barely changed. Real life is like this, I know, but I didn't think it completely worked in this film. It seemed inconclusive. Yeah, it'd be too sentimental if everyone got their act together and their lives completely turned around, but I think Lonergan could have offered SOMETHING that wraps up the film. It just ends.

I'm not normally picky about these things, but there was a lot of horrible issues with sound mixing and editing. Awkward cuts here and there, and at several times extremely large jumps in audio levels. Really takes you out of everything and comes off as "minor league" (admittedly that's the only thing in the movie that feels that way).

I can't I disliked this, nor can I say I liked it... it simply existed. I'll forget it at all within a few months. If you have time and are interested, I wouldn't detract you from checking it out... but, it's certainly nothing i'd ever recommend.