Laura Linney deserved her Oscar nomination for a fine performance in this humour-tinged drama. Linney plays a strong-minded single mum who still lives in the small town where she and her brother (Mark Ruffalo) were orphaned as children. The return of her sibling - a drifter with a chequered past - initially suggests that Linney's character is the smart and stable one, and Ruffalo is the black sheep. But perceptions shift as she embarks on an ill-judged fling with her bank manager boss (Matthew Broderick), and Ruffalo tries to rebuild the relationship between her son (Rory Culkin) and his estranged dad. Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan (Analyze This, Gangs of New York) delivers a sharp script, with acute observations of the siblings' close but sometimes strained relationship. The film takes a while to get going, but it's worth sticking with, and Linney is well supported by the quirky and charismatic Ruffalo.

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.