You Can Count On Me (2000)

This was recommended to me eons ago by my colleague but it has only just arrived via my LoveFilm account. So, was my colleague right to endorse this understated Americana drama?

In short, definitely. This is a brilliant film, which I enjoyed from start to finish. Even Matthew Broderick didn't manage to ruin it for me and was actually quite good. He even made me laugh out loud through his delivery of a line. Wow. This augers well for a good year in film in 2009.

You Can Count on Me focuses on the life of Sammy Prescott (the once again stunning Laura Linney), who raises young son Rudy (Rory Culkin) on her own. Following the death of Sammy's parents in a car accident when they were very young, the family has disintegrated. But an opportunity for redemption arrives when down-on-his-luck younger brother, the dreamy and disaffected Terry, comes to visit.

Films like this live and die on the quality of their performances, being insular, quiet, understated and totally focused on story and relationships. The leads do not let director Kenneth Lonnergan down one bit.

Is Linney the greatest actress performing in Hollywood today? This website would seem to suggest yes, as she is one of the few performers who seems to elicit the same response of adoration from us both, yet she is still relatively unknown. Linney has generally chosen indie flicks to showcase her vast talents and she still perhaps awaits that genuine breakout movie, which it seemed for a while the Truman Show would be. Perhaps it is a good thing that she hasn't 'broken out' and continues to make stunning films like this and 2007's Jindabyne (although my colleague was not as blown away by her performance there as I was). Linney is, again, the best thing in this and that is no mean feat, given the other performances, especially Ruffalo's. Her range and emotional depth is perfectly showcased in the love Sammy clearly has for her troubled younger brother and Linney invests the character with multiple dimensions of being, thought, emotion and behaviour. The character lives and this means the film gasps and breathes deeply the emotional wilds and vistas it inhabits. Linney is, like a true virtuoso, note and tone perfect throughout.

Ruffalo is great as well, brilliantly awkward, funny and distant as a character who clearly carries a lot more with him than he is ever willing to let on. He does some stupid things, but they always feel human and very real and the audience is sympathetically tied to his fate. Rory Culkin, too, clearly got all the acting talents in his family and he is now beginning to break out into the mainstream after measured performances in this and Signs. And as I say, even Matthew Broderick, who I dislike immensely as an actor and consistently fail to understand how he still gets acting jobs, is decent in this, only on occasion lapsing into his normal inconsistency and poor delivery.

This is well worth an hour and a half of anyone's time, imbued in the life and struggle of an interesting, mostly charming and engaging family. The characters are neatly drawn, lively and, crucially, human and the performers have the requisite talents to live up to them. Add this to your LoveFilm wishlist or seek it out at your local video store. Lovely.

A-

MyFilmVault's Greats

Laura Linney

Laura Linney

The daily poll on IMDb is which Laura Linney performance is your favourite of this deacde. Tragically the biggest vote-getter is the answer that basically says I've no idea who she is.

That's a real shame since she constantly delivers outstanding work. She features on my Movie Years awards 3 times, winning for her terrific turn in You Can Count On Me, which doesn't even make the top 5, as shown here...

I am not that familiar with Linney's work. 1991 (17.7%)
Sarah in Love Actually 1949 (17.4%)
Annabeth Markum in Mystic River 1173 (10.5%)
Joan Berkman in The Squid and the Whale 889 (7.9%)
I don't have an opinion here. 827 (7.4%)

For those that haven't, go rent You Can Count On Me and see not only a terrific film but one of the best female performances of the last 10 years. Stunning.

Jindabyne - the other perspective

Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne star in Jindabyne

I had Jindabyne on my wish list long before Matt's A+ review, but that piece of wholesome praise (to put it mildly) only served to convince me that I had something special to look forward to. The reason I had my eye on this one is that it stars one of the most watchable actresses of her generation. Movie years nominations in 2003 and 1998, and an Actress of the Year award in 2000 for her simply stunning turn in You Can Count on Me, should tell you that I'm a fan. Linney is a totally captivating actress with great emotional depth, and there a few better than her working today. So with Matt's enthusiasm for Jindabyne and mine for Linney I went in to this with pretty high hopes.

To summarise the plot of Jindabyne you'd probably say 4 guys go fishing, find a dead body on their first day, but not wanting to spoil the trip they fish for a couple of days before contacting the police. The rest of the film follows the fall-out of their decision. Yet it takes a good hour for any of this to actually happen. The opening 60 minutes in which we amble along in the company of Linney, Byrne and co are not what I'd call gripping. There's no plot to speak of, the characters are not that interesting. Ray Lawrence's insistence in cutting every scene short with a fade to black had me wanting to put my fist through the screen. It's particularly galling on the 90 minute mark when it follows a major confrontation between Linney and Byrne - the best scene in the film. Instead of a lingering shot to let you take in the emotional gravitas of the scene, Lawrence has faded out around half a nanosecond after the last line of dialogue. I've just seen a film with a 4 minute static shot on George Clooney and it was fantastic. Oh to have those sensibilities rather than these. I recall now that he did the same thing in Lantana (at least I think he did) - I don't think I was particularly impressed then either.

Jindabyne is based on the Raymond Carver short story also featured in Robert Altman's Short Cuts. Now Altman is never one to rush a scene so automatically I enjoyed that more, but I think the main reason Short Cuts is far superior is the fact that it is based on a several Carver stories rather than just one. I don't think that Beatrix Christian has successfully adapted his short into a 120 minute feature. Apart from that slow first act, we have the presence of the killer popping up throughout the film, when he could have been excised completely and the film been stronger. But worst of all, a ludicrous 3 minute song at the girl's funeral that's just awful to sit through. And because there's too much padding here, Lawrence cuts short the genuinely successful scenes just to make room.

It's a great idea for a short story and does pose some interesting questions. Personally I don't find what the men did all that objectionable. The likelihood that the police would be in a better position to solve the case is slim so the only real ethical quandary is whether there's a family going through hell that need to be put out of their misery. For that reason they should have reported it immediately but maybe they didn't think of that. The allegations levelled at the men of racism or sexism are well wide of the mark, although Clare has a point when she asks if he'd have left a boy in the stream instead of a young woman. Somehow it seems a harder thing to do. I guess then that the men are guilty of ageism.

Jindabyne is out on DVD now.

C

Breach

Ryan Phillippe and Chris Cooper in Breach

You wait ages for an intelligent, slow-burning thriller and then three come a long at once. Well if not at once at least fairly close together. First Robert De Niro gave us his take on the early history of the CIA in The Good Shepherd and then David Fincher turned his hand at a film adaptation on Robert Graysmith's books on a real life serial killer in Zodiac. Now comes the turn of Billy Ray, in his second film as director, with Breach, a film also based on true events - this time the greatest security breach in US history.

Breach is comparable to those films in a number of ways: it unravels slowly, is impeccably directed and most of all superbly acted. Chris Cooper, gets a rare but thoroughly deserved starring role as Robert Hanssen, the agen tresponsible for the security breach. Cooper won a supporting Oscar for Adaptation., and in any other year probably would have won another for American Beauty, although 1999 was such an amazing year for films that he couldn't even filnd his way onto the shortlist. In Breach Cooper pulls of a tricky role with aplomb. Hanssen, is a conflict of personalities: menacing, aloof and unsettling but also sympathetic and thoughtful. That is surely not an easy feat to pull off. It's probably a little early to be talking of Oscar nominations but it would certainly make the ballot if it took place today.

Cooper is joined by Ryan Phillippe and Laura Linney. Phillippe is not someone I've cared for in theb past, being responsble for such crimes as Cruel Intentions (which my friend Dave bizarrly likes and wants me to review, but I refuse to watch it again and I'm fairly sure he only liked it for Sarah Michelle Gellar), and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Despite a shakey start in the film industry Phillippe has grown in stature and is actually someone I enjoy on sreen. His performance in the Oscar winning Crash was impressive and he gives his best effort yet in Breach, as the computer specialist entrusted with the task of bringing Hanssen down.

Like Zodiac, I left the theatre wanting to know more about the case and that's credit to the writers Adam Mazer, William Rotko and Billy Ray, who have fashioned a taut and absorbing thriller. Linney is as good as ever in an undemanding role, although she's the sort of actress who lends a gravitas to even the simplest of parts, and Dennis Haysbert and Gary Cole pop up in smaller roles. However this film belongs to Cooper, who utterly convinces as the disgraced agent, and who may well be in demand during the awards season.

B+