Family affair

>> Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me effectively captures strained sibling relations

by MATTHEW HAYS

It's been a strange year for Kenneth Lonergan. The acclaimed theatrical director, playwright and screenwriter made a serious splash at Sundance in January when his directorial debut, You Can Count on Me, premiered. Later in the year things were a bit different when Rocky and Bullwinkle, released with Lonergan credited as screenwriter, flopped at the box office.

Best of times and worst of times, to paraphrase the quote, but Lonergan says the two projects were so entirely different that he can barely compare them. "You really can't feel responsible for movies like Rocky and Bullwinkle, not in the same way that you can a personal film you've done on your own. The first thing you have to keep in mind is that you're a hired hand. I always try to do the best work possible, but I also try to emotionally detach myself, because you know the minute you leave they're going to tamper with what you've done."

Not so with You Can Count on Me, Lonergan's exceptional, low-budget film about a brother and sister who try to reconnect as adults after being orphaned as children. Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo star, filling out the characters Lonergan created in his own screenplay. The film manages to beautifully capture the complex relationship between two emotionally damaged family members, painting an intricate portrait that never stoops to cliché. Ruffalo plays someone who is so emotionally confused that he's essentially paralyzed, unable to move ahead with his life.

"He's not modelled on anyone I know in particular," says Lonergan. "But we all know people like that. People who have a weight inside of them that they can't shake. It's like they can't win."

Lonergan's debut as a director was given a boost by the involvement of his childhood friend, Matthew Broderick, who stars as an anal bank manager. Lonergan reports that the trickiest thing about making the switch from writer to director was "just the sheer time pressure. I'm someone who really likes to think things through so carefully. And you really don't have time to do that with a movie. You also have to think very visually, which is different. Essentially, though, I tried to be pretty conservative in the way we shot the film, as I thought that suited the film best."

Lonergan says he's buoyed by responses to You Can Count on Me, which is now finding itself on more and more critics' year-end top-10 lists. "It's enough that the film is out there and that people are enjoying it," says Lonergan. "Then people start saying that it should be on all these top-10 lists and start talking about the Oscars. It just makes you greedy, really. It's hard not to think that way. It's tempting. But it's much healthier to just think, 'Wow, we did a great job and people are seeing it.'"

You Can Count on Me opens Friday, Dec. 15