You Can Count On Me

Date of release: September 6, 2001

Story / Synopsis:

Sammy and Terry Prescott (Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo) are a sister and brother from Scottsville, a small, out-of-the-way town in the beautiful hills of upstate New York. Orphaned at a young age when their parents were killed in a car crash, they have remained very close despite the two totally different paths their lives have taken. Sammy lives with all the security and limitations of small-town life, harboring beneath the routines of church and family a secretly passionate and rebellious nature. Married and divorced at a very young age, she is a devoted but somewhat overprotective mother to her eight-year-old son, Rudy (Rory Culkin), who harbors romantic notions about his absentee father, whish Sammy is too tenderhearted to dispel. Terry leads a troubled and nomadic existence; he is very charming, totally irresponsible and seriously self-destructive.
When Terry comes home to borrow money, a disaster in his won life compels him to stay with Sammy and Rudy for a while and try to get his life together. Desperate to help Terry get back on his feet before it is too late, Sammy is delighted when he strikes up a real friendship with Rudy. Terry’s stimulating presence also inspires Sammy to break out of many of the duller routines of her small-town existence; and she starts pushing the limits of all her relationships; with her stifling new boss, Brian (Matthew Broderick), and her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Bob (Jon Teney).

But if Sammy has been too routinized and domestic, Terry is too wild and irresponsible to be a reliable friend for Rudy, and he lets the little boy down time and time again until Sammy is almost frantic between her conflicting desire to help her brother and protect her young son from getting hurt. With good intentions on every side, Sammy and Terry’s human limitations bump up against each other until a final crisis nearly forces them apart.

Other information:

The genesis of the screenplay for You Can Count On Me has its basis in the theater as well. The story grew out of a one-act play Longergan wrote for Naked Angels. "We have these evenings of short pieces, each with a different theme, and on this particular evening the theme was faith," he explains. "I had this idea of a brother and sister, and the brother is a screw-up but the sister still believes in him. She is always pulling for him, but he’s very difficult. I thought that this kind of relationship could be interesting to write about. So, I wrote this short play, and developed a relationship with the boy? And then, if that situation became problematic, it might be an interesting premise on which to build a script."

You Can Count On Me is a snapshot of family life and relationships at the turn of the 21st century -- a time of both hope and uncertainty. The film brings into relief a world of accepted dysfunction but also a world where everyone is trying their best to do the right thing, even though there seems to be a force working against them. It is also a world where the characters are not drawn in black and white. Each character has to deal with the consequences brought on by their lapses in judgment.

The relatively recent breakdown of the traditional family structure suggests that new paradigms need to be created. Producer John hart comments, "One thing Kenny explores is a world where kids are growing up with absent parents’ in the film, Sammy and Terry are orphaned, but for many Gen x and Gen Y kids, their parents are so involved in their own lives that they become less involved and less influential in the lives of their children. This is not a positive development."

The director adds, "one thing that interests me is they way people choose to live their lives and what path that leads them down. Everyone in the movie has either been force into or has chosen a particular path. They are all running into difficulties because of the unique problems presented by that choice. It’s a conflict between people who really care for each other, who are trying really hard to be good to each other and themselves but clash, because they believe in different things and they each want something different from life."

The film contrasts two different lifestyles. One is that of a seemingly conservative single mother in a small town who holds down a bank job and attends church every Sunday. The second is that of a young man living an itinerant life, with an adversity to setting down roots, who goes from job to job all over the country, and never fails to find trouble. Brother and Sister grow up and purse two very different lives. "Sammy believes that everything, however terrible it might be, is done for a reason. Terry doesn’t buy that at all, and so he becomes cynical and disconnected form things and returns home, she tries, as gently as she can, to suggest that may be if he looks to his rots and the religion that molded their childhood when things were good, that it might help him."

"Sammy is kind of a mother figure for Terry as well and she’s always taken on that role," adds Ruffalo. "Our parents died in a car wreck and Sammy has always felt like she had to take care of the family. Sammy is always checking up on Terry. When his parents died, Terry just gave up on the world. Sammy keeps tabs on him and makes sure he’s all right. She’s always trying to help him to believe in himself or believe in something to give him a feeling that life is worth living."

Terry’s relationship with his nephew Rudy is pivotal to the story and is key to how it changes the relationship between Sammy and Terry. "Terry goes back to his past. He was eight when his parents died and Rudy is eight," comments Ruffalo. "It makes Terry bring himself up to speed through this kid. Then he realizes that he really cares about Rudy in the end, and he’s never cared about anybody in his life but himself."

Rory Culkin, who makes his lead acting debut in You Can Count On Me as Rudy, impressed the entire cast with his professionalism. He and Ruffalo bonded right away by doing things together when they were notworking – just as a nephew would with his uncle.

Regarding the development of the uncle-nephew relationship, Ruffalo says, "It gives Rudy the confidence that he never had. He didn’t have a man in his life. His father split when he was two, and he has just never had that kind of guidance or appreciation from an older guy. He has a mother, of course, but to not have a father makes him insecure. Rudy and Terry become close friends and Rudy learns how to be man and stand up for himself."

Linney says, "Terry and Rudy are the two men in her life that she loves the most. When Terry comes back into her life he repeatedly points out to her that she treats her eight-year-old son like a child, and Sammy’s view is that he is a child not a 25-year-old adult. Terry challenges her on her motherhood, which is the one thing she has always felt proud of and assumed it is her greatest accomplishment. So this creates a big struggle and she starts to doubt herself and she also fights with Terry about it."

"In their world there is an absence of any real spiritual guidance from the church or the school community," comments Hart. One is really left to navigate life on one’s own and the only way you can do that is to take care of and respond to the people closest to you. In You Can Count On Me, the siblings have a certain faith, maybe somewhat unorthodox, but they find a rudder for guidance where there was none."

But Linney thinks that religion is very important to Sammy. "It’s the one constant in her life. It brings a great sense of security and a wonderful connection to the community and it helps her to have faith and belief that everything is going as it should. Nothing happens without a reason so it helps her cope and deal," she says.
Of his character Brian, who may at first seem like a cad, but really is not, Broderick says, " I don’t judge him all that much, I try to make him real and interesting and entertaining."

Sharp adds, "Matthew really allowed Brian to jump off the page and become the humorous character that he is. Matthew brings a joy and a levity to everything he does."

Nominated:

Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen at 2001 Oscar Academy Awards, USA

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture at 2001 Golden Globe, USA

Awards:

Best Original Screenplay, 2001 Writers Guild of America

Best New Writer, New Directions Prize, AFI Fest 2000 Dramatic Grand Jury Prize (tie), Waldo Salt Screenwriting Prize, 2000 Sundance Film Festival

British Film Institute's Sutherland Trophy (Best Picture), 2000 London Film

Festival:

Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Linney), 2000 New York Film Critics Circle

Best Screenplay, New Generation Award (Ruffalo), 2000 Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Best New Filmmaker (Lonergan), 2000 Boston Society of Film Critics

Best Actress (Linney), Best Screenplay, 2001 National Society of Film Critics

Festival:

This movie will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival as a Special Presentation.