Kenneth Lonergan - You Can Count on Me (2000) Repost

A lot happens at once to Sammy, a single mom living in the Catskill town of her birth, where her parents died in a car crash when she was small. Her son Rudy, who's 8, begins imagining his unseen father as a hero; she picks up, sort of, with last year's boyfriend; she gets a new boss who imposes foolish rules; and, her wayward brother Terry arrives for a visit after months of no communication. The boyfriend proposes, the relationship with her boss takes an unexpected turn, and her brother and son bond, not always with positive consequences. When Terry asks young Rudy if he wants to meet his father, a crisis of sorts ensues, and brother and sister must re-frame their relationship.







What distinguishes You Can Count on Me from almost every other recent American film is its modesty. Although visually handsome, it is about the furthest thing from an event movie and would fit as comfortably on television as it does on the big screen. Its biggest strength is a steadfast integrity that sharpens as the story goes along. Steering clear of the shrill melodramatic confrontations and kitschy spiritual uplift that Hollywood routinely confuses with profundity, it proposes no pat solutions for its characters' problems. One significant character, a likable but cautious young boy, is the refreshing antithesis of the psychically gifted, problem-solving superchild that is becoming one of Hollywood's most obnoxious cliches.

You Can Count on Me is an exquisitely observed slice of upstate New York life that reminds us there are still plenty of American communities where the pace is more human than computer-driven. The movie dares to portray small-town middle-class life in America as somewhat drab and predictable. Without ever condescending to its characters, it trusts that the everyday problems of ordinary people, if portrayed with enough knowledge, empathy and insight, can be as compelling as the most bizarre screaming carnival on The Jerry Springer Show. (NYT Review by Stephen Holden)





Sammy Precott (Laura Linney) vive en Scottsville, el pequeño pueblo del norte de Nueva York donde nació y donde murieron sus padres cuando aún era niña. Ahora es una madre soltera que sobreprotege a su hijo de ocho años, Rudy. Aletargada por sus limitaciones sociales, está contenta de vivir rodeada del confort y la seguridad de los paisajes en los que creció, de trabajar en el banco de la ciudad y de asistir con regularidad a los servicios religiosos de su iglesia. Pero la llegada de su hermano Terry (Mark Ruffalo), un tipo encantador pero irresponsable y totalmente autodestructivo, cambiará muchas de esas cosas. (La Butaca)





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