Team Experience is looking back on past Sundance winners since we aren't attending this year. Here's Kieran on Kenneth Lonergan's directorial debut
In many of the write-ups about Kenneth Lonergan's delicate and perceptive character study, the one aspect people seem to be on the same page about is the believable sibling dynamic between Sammy (Laura Linney) and Terry Prescott (Mark Ruffalo). Watching Sammy and Terry's first face-to-face interactions, I thought "Yes! This is how brothers and sisters behave!" It's such a tricky thing to depict, and it's often done poorly. How does a writer/director effectively convey a relationship between two adults whose shared histories are such a constant, inescapable presence? It's a subtle tightrope to walk.
Watch the way Sammy's excitement, telegraphed via Laura Linney's erratic, double-wave and her subsequent warm embrace of Terry after a long absence. The initial excitement quickly gives way to all the shit (pardon my French, but there's really no other word that feels appropriate) that often rests between two siblings. Does Linney have a natural aplomb at believably and compellingly selling this relationship? Perhaps. It's interesting to juxtapose her wonderful turn here against her equally accomplished performance in The Savages where she's playing the opposite side of the fuck-up/reliable sibling dyad.
I would wager that when considering Laura Linney (her television work aside) most think of her supporting roles in The Truman Show, Mystic River and Kinsey. Neither one of these turns are wholly uninteresting, but all seem to rest at least partially on very overt externalities (hyper-realism, geographically specific speech, and period, respectively). Then there's Linney's distinctive voice, which has such a unique range that can express deep, unsurprised disappointment and shrill moments of panicky actressing tailor-made for awards clips (I mean this in the best way possible). But all of these factors seem to betray what a watchful, reactive and interestingly modulated performer Linney truly is. In You Can Count on Me's restaurant scene, where several things are laid quite bare fairly early on (a risky move handled deftly), Linney builds to one of her trademark, unfussy and fascinating explosions. But, it is in the moments where she's regarding Terry with a silence occasionally punctuated by loaded chuckles (her response to the Ruffalo's A-plus line "This is the haute-cuisine of garments" is so tiny and perfect) that Linney does her best acting. It's quite the balancing act to behold as Linney simultaneously conveys Sammy's sizing up of Terry and her feeble attempts to disguise the fact that she's doing so before it all goes to hell and the older sister comes out, rife with judgment and apprehension.
She is matched evenly by Ruffalo, who seems to have such a sure hand at portraying selfish (but not malicious) men, too aware of their own charms and too willing to state the awful truth of any given situation, but for all the wrong reasons. Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo don't look at all like siblings. Linney reads so uppercrust New England (even in Mystic River) and Mark Ruffalo has a certain effortless, scruffy charm that seems to suggest the exact opposite...and that he perhaps only showers on odd days, in the case of this film. In that respect the film starts off at a disadvantage. Lonergan seems to know this and puts in the work on both the script and direction level, making these characters lived-in and connected. The result could have easily read as very cynical, pointed and self-consciously clever. But, like even the most tumultuous of brother-sister relationships, there is a tough, honest but warm heart beating throughout this movie. It's so great to see Linney and Ruffalo (now thrice Oscar-nominated each) and Kenneth Lonergan (who wowed with his follow-up Margaret and is getting raves for Manchester By the Sea, currently playing at Sundance) still turning in interesting work years after their paths crossed on this beautiful Sundance winner.
Even the ancillary afterthoughts, from the poster to its title (wisely never uttered by either character, but rather running through the film like a constant, unwavering sentiment) seem to suggest a film that one can sit down and be enveloped in like a security blanket, especially if you have siblings. And the real treat? I never once, not for even a second, got the impression that Lonergan was consciously trying to make a warm or enjoyable film. It happened. And that feeling is birthed from well-observed truth.
Previously on Retro Sundance
Desert Hearts (86), Brave Little Toaster (88), Longtime Companion (90), Poison (91), Run Lola Run (99), You Can Count on Me (00), Memento (01), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (01)
Current Sundance
Birth of a Nation, Tallulah, Manchester by the Sea and Christine, Indignation, Certain Women