DIALOGUE YOU CAN COUNT ON
by William C. Martell
Before Rory Culkin found SIGNS in Mel Gibson's corn fields, he Laura Linney's son in
Ken Lonergan's YOU CAN COUNT ON ME. The movie is either the funniest
drama you have ever seen or the most emotional comedy. It's hard to categorize a film
that opens with a horrifying car accident that kills the parents of a little girl and her
brother... but has you laughing out loud at daily life in small town America a few minutes
later. One thing that everybody agrees on is that Ken Lonergan's screenplay has the
most realistic characters, situations, and dialogue of any film in recent memory.
Two decades after the accident that killed her parents, Sammy Prescott (Laura Linney)
is a VERY organized bank loan officer (she has a complex filing system for her personal
correspondence) trying to raise her son as a single mother. Her brother Terry (Mark
Ruffalo) is a dope smoking drifter who has never been responsible a day in his life.
When Terry comes to visit Sammy (and hit her up for a loan) at the same time her long
time boyfriend finally proposes and her bank gets a new by-the-book manager, she is
faced with more conflicts than she can handle. None of these conflicts are as big as an
asteroid hurtling towards Earth, but combined they create the kind of realistic problems
that we can all identify with.
Most films that strive for realism sacrifice entertainment, but Lonergan's script keeps us
laughing. The off-Broadway playwright of THIS IS OUR YOUTH and screenwriter of the
mob comedy ANALYZE THIS effectively balances serious drama about average
people's problems and light comedy based on character and situations. The dialogue in
YOU CAN COUNT ON ME isn't filled with jokes, it's filled with the truth; and when we
laugh at the characters on the screen we are laughing at our own foibles.
One of the first scenes has Sammy calling her boyfriend Bob (Jon Tenney) and asking
him out to dinner... cut to them in bed after making love. There's an awkward silence,
then she says very politely: "Thanks for a lovely evening." The juxtaposition of the two
scenes gets a big laugh, and her line acts as a "button" - pressing the audience with an
end to the scene that creates additional laughter. The line also tells us a great deal
about Sammy's character and her relationship with Bob. She is still in complete control
of herself, and doesn't let down her guard when she's in bed with her boyfriend. What
makes the line funny is that it is out of place in that situation, but completely in
character for Sammy.
AWKWARD PAUSES
Natural sounding dialogue is difficult to write. Real dialogue is often pointless or vague,
but we've only got 110 pages in a screenplay so we have to get to the point. Our
introduction to Terry has him hitting up his girlfriend Sheila (Gaby Hoffman) for bus fare
so that he can leave her. The scene is filled with conflict bubbling just below the
surface. It's a situation created to turn the liabilities of realistic sounding dialogue into
assets. The conflict increases the more Terry beats around the bush.
TERRY
Hey.
SHEILA
Hey, Terry. Where'd you get that hat?
TERRY
I got it on the street for a dollar.
SHEILA
It's nice.
TERRY
It's pretty much your standard woolen hat.
SHEILA
I had a very similar reaction to it.
TERRY
Uh.... Um... Can I get that money from you?
SHEILA
Oh, yeah.
TERRY
Is that all you had?
SHEILA
Yeah.
TERRY
Can you borrow some more from your brother?
SHEILA
Well, that would involve speaking to him.
TERRY
You know, I'm definitely going to be gone for a
couple of days, Sheila. I mean...
SHEILA
Why are you staying for so long?
TERRY
Because my sister is not a bank, you know?
I can't just show up and...
That's when conflict boils over into the argument we can see coming from the beginning
of the scene. Talking about unimportant things like the hat create suspense in the
scene by keeping that argument below the surface. He dances around the subject. The
situation tortures the audience with every awkward pause. We feel sorry for him, but we
are also learning about his character. Terry will continue to use the phrase "you know"
throughout the entire script - two words added to a sentence that creates instant
colloquialism.
CONFLICT
Those awkward pauses and tangent subjects come into play again when Terry breezes
into town to meet Sammy. We know that all Terry wants is money, so to intensify the
"uncomfortable suspense" the sequence opens with Sammy cleaning house and
preparing a homecoming feast for her brother. We know her expectations for the visit
are much different than Terry's.
TERRY
Um... So, you coming from work?
SAMMY
No. It's Saturday.
TERRY
Yeah, nah. It's just you're dressed so formally.
SAMMY
Oh. No. I thought it was a special occasion. Which it is.
Terry is dressed in a ripped shirt and jeans. The conversation gets off on the wrong
foot, and keeps stumbling. She asks what he's been up to, he's evasive. She asks why
he hasn't sent a post card in six months. Now he's on the defensive. The more she
asks about where he's been, the more evasive he becomes... until he finally says, "I
actually got to confess to you Sammy, the reason why you may not have heard from me
for a while, is that... I've been unable to write, um, due to the fact that... I was in jail for a
little while." Conflict erupts, and it becomes more difficult for Terry to hit her up for a
loan and split. After he asks her for money, it just gets worse:
TERRY
Do you not even want me to visit now? Because I
can catch the bus at five O'clock if that's what you want.
SAMMY
Of course I want you to visit, you idiot. I've been
looking forward to seeing you more than anything.
I told everybody I know that you were coming. I
cleaned the whole fucking house so it would look
nice for you. I mean, I thought you would stay at least a
few days. I had no idea that you were just broke again.
I wish you had just sent me an invoice!
The last line is not only clever, it's completely in character for Sammy. But the
preceding lines are a great example of the complex relationships that make YOU CAN
COUNT ON ME a brilliant screenplay. There's a contrast between what Sammy says,
the tone of voice she says it in, and what she means. There are layers to the dialogue.
She says "I've been looking forward to seeing you more than anything" - the words
would make it seem she's happy to see her brother, but she's screaming this at him in
anger. Underneath that anger is disappointment - Terry has let her down again. Her
expectations for Terry form a layer under that, and her inability to control the world
around her is the core conflict in the story.
The dialogue grows out of the complex relationship between characters who love each
other but are completely different - even antagonistic to each other. The situation is
what makes the dialogue meaningful.
SITUATIONS
Many of the best moments are scenes where characters don't say anything... but want
to. Let's call it "unspoken dialogue". Lonergan sets up situations where we know what a
character wants to say, then leaves it unsaid. Later in the film Terry gets some bad
news and decides to extend his stay with Sammy... finally breaking down and crying.
She holds him, and we see the love between them that words can not express. No lies,
no accusations, no evasions.
Because Sammy's new by-the-book bank manager (Matthew Broderick) won't allow her
the fifteen minutes a day to pick up her son Rudy (Rory Culkin) from school and take
him to the babysitter's house, this becomes Terry's responsibility. One day Sammy gets
a call that Terry and Rudy never arrived at the babysitter's. She rushes out of the bank
without a word of explanation to her manager and searches for them. She spots Terry's
car at a construction site where he's doing day labor and prepares to accuse him of
being so irresponsible and self-centered that he forgot Rudy... but when she spots Terry
she's speechless. He's teaching Rudy how to hold a hammer and pound a nail. Sammy
watches for a while, smiling, and leaves before they see her. This is one of the most
emotional scenes in the film, but not a word of dialogue is spoken by Sammy.
MISUNDERSTANDINGS
Good dialogue contains misunderstandings. Characters can't read each others minds
and have no idea where the conversation is going. Bad dialogue tries to push the story,
good dialogue flows with it. Terry genuinely likes Rudy. Maybe it's because they're at
the same level of (im)maturity, but he gets along great with this eight year old. They
become pals and share confidences.
TERRY
You know, this used to be my room.
RUDY
Yeah... You want it back?
TERRY
No.
Gets a laugh. Lonergan used this technique to keep the laughs rolling in ANALYZE
THIS, laying one misunderstanding on top of another. In YOU CAN COUNT ON ME his
misunderstandings are sometimes funny, sometimes painful. Characters think they
understand each other but are often miles apart.
Rudy is the only character who can cut through Terry's evasiveness and get an honest
answer from him. The two cement their friendship when Terry misunderstands
Sammy's childcare instructions on purpose. The rules are Rudy can only watch two
hours of TV. So after two hours, the TV set goes off and Terry says: "Your mom didn't
say anything about playing pool, so we'll do that for the rest of the night." He takes
Rudy to a roadhouse with a pool table. A pretty rough looking place.
RUDY
I don't think they let kids in here.
TERRY
Well, we're not allowed to watch any more TV
so it's this or nothing. If we get in any trouble,
you let me do the talking, okay?
RUDY
Okay.
TERRY
(to pool players)
I got a hundred bucks here that me and my nephew
can beat anybody in here, only we gotta get the next
game because he's got to be in bed by ten o'clock.
Terry and Rudy play against two big guys. The situation is not only filled with laughs, it
shows the close relationship between the two. It's the most fun Rudy has ever had
(Sammy's over protective - she holds on too tight to those around her for fear they will
be yanked away). Who would take an eight year-old to a bar and team up with him in a
pool match? For money? They not only win, but Terry lets Rudy sink the winning shot.
TERRY
Just kiss is.
RUDY
What do you mean "kiss" it?
TERRY
I mean tap it. Firm, but very very softly.
RUDY
Okay.
This scene leads to a misunderstanding that changes the direction of the story. Rudy
swears to Terry that he won't tell his mom about their trip to the roadhouse. But a friend
of Sammy's saw them playing pool and tells her... and she chews out Terry. Because
Terry believes that Rudy "squealed" he puts an end to their friendship. The two
characters who most need each other have been driven apart.
YOU CAN COUNT ON ME has dialogue that sounds overheard rather than written.
Realism created through colloquialisms, misunderstandings, inventive use of small talk,
awkward silences, multiple levels of subtext, and situations which allow "unspoken
dialogue" between characters. It was one of the best written films of 2000.
FADE OUT
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