Review of You Can Count on Me

Linney has been one of my favorite actresses since she did "Congo", and thoroughly stupid and thoroughly entertaining movie. In that movie she plays an action role, and does a fine job, but manages to also bring a kind of sweetness to the role that is charming. Unfortunately, she seems to get cast as an icy blond most of the time, so we don't see much of her range (she was really good in "The Truman Show", but she played a bitch there, as usual). However, in this movie she gets to play a real person, and she is terrific.

The movie is about an adult brother and sister, whose parents were killed in a traffic accident when they were kids, and who really have only each other, but the brother is a rootless type who is just barely too nice and smart to be a complete loser. When the movie opens he is coming back to see his sister, and his return perturbs her life enough that pieces of it start to fall off. The supporting cast is excellent, but Linney gives a funny, heartbreaking performance of a woman that has only herself to count on, and who longs to let loose but is (justifiably) afraid to do so. However, she is also unwilling to box herself in to achieve security. One of the great things about the movie is that it doesn't try to explain everything neatly, or even to resolve much of anything.

This is a really good date movie, by the way...