Acclaimed playwright Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me is one of the most highly praised independent films of recent years, earning many of the major screenplay awards. This is the lovingly drawn story of a sister and brother’s complicated, fragile, but somehow enduring bond. Sammy and Terry Prescott were orphaned as children. Sammy, now the single mother of a young son, has stayed in their hometown and is an officer at the local bank. Terry has become something of a drifter, surfacing only when he needs money. Sammy’s own life has its complications: she puts off an old boyfriend’s proposal and begins an affair with her new boss. Together in their family home, Terry’s charming irresponsibility collides with Sammy’s confusion over her own actions. What remains unspoken is what they’ve known since they were left with only each other sixteen years before.

In 1983, Bo Goldman's heartbreaking screenplay was nominated by the Writers Guild of America as Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen. It dramatizes the end of a 15-year marriage, devastating the husband, the wife, and their three children. After the divorce, the husband becomes preoccupied with his writing career and mistress. The wife, who has custody of the children, has a relationship of her own. Although they attempt to lead separate existences, the two are brought back together again when the husband tries to bully his way back into his family's lives.