You Can Count on Me

June 3, 2005 - Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo carry this 2000 drama. Matthew Broderick also stars along with Jon Tenney.

Linney and Ruffalo play a brother and sister who were orphaned at a fairly young age. Linney's character, Samantha, took over the role of Mom to younger brother Terry (Ruffalo).

These days, Samantha is a single mom to 8-year-old Rudy. She works at the local bank, and is dealing with a new boss (Broderick). Terry, meanwhile, has wandered the country looking for work and smoking pot along the way. He needs money, so he figures he'll visit his dependable sister and hit her up for a few bucks.

Terry intends to stay for only a day or two, but it lasts longer than that when he takes an interest in Rudy. The two do guy stuff like shoot pool and hammer nails while Samantha starts an affair with her new boss, whose wife is pregnant. Tenney plays a local guy who wants to marry Samantha, but she's not so sure.

Overall Review: ** Don't really have much to say about this film. It was OK. The characters are very true to life, but I think the movie needed to do a better job of explaining their motives. We see these people, we recognize them, but we don't really know them.