Surprisingly incoherent and boring

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Though nothing much happens for 2-hours, I was still engaged with the crumbling family unit the whole way. Paradoxically, when it was over, I wasn't sure what it was all about. Quite a triumph for the crew to convert such outwardly tame material into a compelling result. Not once, I think, does the drama descend into soap opera, a temptation given the material. Still, I do think some tighter editing wouldn't have harmed the overall result.Looks to me like the film's about Mom (Moore) and Dad (Sutherland) living in their own little pretend worlds. Dad's enjoying his upper class life, protecting it by believing everything's alright at home regardless of reality. Mom's more complex. Looks like she stifles her feelings by putting on a deadpan mask. Clearly though, she favored older son Buck. So, once tragedy strikes and older boy Buck drowns, younger brother Conrad gets no help from them when he blames himself for Buck's death. In short, parenting flaws that had not been critical before Conrad's trauma, suddenly become critical afterwards, leaving the surviving son in a floundering, self-destructive state. Importantly, the family's prosperous, so the problems come partially from prosperity and not from poverty. The youthful Hutton richly deserved his Oscar. In years of movie watching, his ravaged teenage emotions are as realistic as any I've seen. And that's without overplaying. Perhaps a James Dean Award is in order. But is that really MTM. I can't believe it. Her sunshine has been traded for a lemon drop. Still, she shows her acting chops in a persuasive way. Anyway, if you like family drama, this fairly subtle entry is worth catching up with.

We all deal with grief differently, it is a stress like no other in life. In this story a son is killed in a sailing accident, and we get to see how a father, mother and brother deal with the stress. Grief can unmask things about people that would otherwise remain unseen; sometimes it unveils an ugliness far beyond expectations.When one of two sons, Buck dies, his brother becomes suicidally depressed. His mother, on the other hand, pulls the old ostrich bit- head in the sand with the old "I don't want to talk about it" routine. The dopey but likable father goes all Rodney King on us with the "Can't we all just , get along?"The dialogue is what makes this movie great. When the surviving son tries to talk with his mother, it is so awkward and cringe inducing, it is hard to watch. It is obvious that the guy is struggling, and is looking for a little understanding from mom. The kid finds some understanding from a shrink, which can happen, but his mom is no help at all. She is much more worried about the way things look, than the way her son feels. "I had to find out you quit the swim team from Beth Meyerson???, WHAT WILL THE NEIGHBORS THINK?"She lives in a flat out mansion, spends her time golfing and "doing lunch", can obviously afford cosmetic surgery (wink wink), and has a great bod for a woman of her age. Yet, all she worries about is her vacations, clothing, image, in short herself. Look up "rich bitch" in the dictionary and there is an image of her, retouched of course.Some of the negative reviews I have read seem to miss the point. People react differently to grief, sometimes even in a bad way, and yes, it can be the mother who can behave badly. Granted, this is not the norm, but it does occur. That is what makes this so interesting, we get to see an unusual reaction from an unusual family member. Some viewers are so indoctrinated into the PC world of feminist scrip writing that it seems to melt they're butch-wax when they see anybody but the adult male portrayed as the villain.In this piece , the father and son are the ones with the wisdom and understanding, and it is the female that wears the black hat. This was made in 1980, and in the 90s this type of writing became practically illegal, or at least never green lighted by a studio. They don't make them like this anymore, the PC police would not approve.

Ordinary People is an ironic title. The main players are far from ordinary, suffering a trauma of the death of the eldest child in a sailing accident. They also are what could be termed middle class, even upper middle class but not ordinary.Ordinary People was the directorial debut of superstar actor Robert Redford who makes a small, intimate, unflashy picture with his main strengths being the acting from its cast.Conrad Jarrett (Timothy Hutton) feels guilty about his brother's death because he survived the incident and Buck did not. He attempts to commit suicide which has led to an extended stay in hospital.Returning home he is trying to rebuild his life. His father Cal (Donald Sutherland) is understanding, patient and wants him to continue his recovery by seeing a psychiatrist. His mother Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) loved her eldest son but seems cold and distant when it comes to Conrad. She wants life to carry on as before and for Conrad to get over it. Conrad arranges to see Dr Berger (Judd Hirsch) who helps Conrad and in due course even his father also goes to see Dr Berger as well.At the time the subject matter was not something that was intelligently dealt with in mainstream movies. Now it is a common television of the week subject matter.The film delves into Conrad's psyche. A precocious teenager who is lost. One friend he knew from hospital and who seems to be pulling through later dies. Eventually it is Dr Berger who gets through to him and it is his father's understanding he comes to appreciate.The film also examines Cal and Beth. Parents who have lost a child, nearly lost another and their differing ways in dealing with this. Redford confounds the audience by making the mother brittle and aloof. Tyler-Moore known for comedies pulls out a character that is all too real. She is a strong and determined woman and yet behind it all hiding her pain, putting a brave face to the world and wondering why the others could not do the same. She was nominated for a best actress Oscar.Sutherland failed to be nominated for his perceptive and kind father, he provides the warmth that Conrad needs and he also realises at the end that he and Beth are over.Ordinary People won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director for Redford. It beat the more flashy and controversial Raging Bull which came to be regarded as the best film of the 1980s. Timothy Hutton who had the lion's share of the film won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. A cynical move to shield him from the Best Actor category as the producers knew he would be no match that year from the Robert De Niro avalanche.Ordinary People is an examination of middle class mores and middle class life in crisis in late 1970s/early 1980s America.

Based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Judith Guest, this is a beautifully written, acted and directed exploration of the dynamics of a dysfunctional family, grief and depression. It is a deeply moving, intelligent and honest film which Robert Redford, making his directorial debut, handles in a superb manner. The script by Alvin Sargent is wonderful and features the best on screen depiction of depression that I have ever seen.The lead role of Conrad Jarrett is played by Timothy Hutton, who was only 19 at the time. Conrad is struggling with coming to terms with the accidental drowning of his elder brother Buck. As he was present at the time and unable to save him, he is suffering from both PTSD and survivor's guilt which led him to attempt suicide. Understandably, Conrad is in emotional turmoil at the beginning of the film and his experiences make it impossible for him to resume his normal life at home or in school. Many of his problems are compounded by the fact that he has such a poor relationship with his mother Beth, whom he feels does not love him or perhaps even hates him. Hutton is wonderfully natural in the role and Conrad always seems like a real person. In the early parts of the film, he is fidgety, short-tempered, easily distracted, seems unable to focus his thoughts, does not know (at least consciously) exactly why he feels so bad, occasionally says and does things which he immediately regrets and cannot even imagine feeling any better than he does at any given moment. All of these are feelings associated with depression and Hutton perfectly communicates them to the audience. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role at only 20 and he is the youngest male to ever win an Oscar. Although he was fourth billed, he is certainly the star of the film and should really have been nominated for Best Actor. However, perhaps this was done deliberately so that he would have a better chance of winning a well-deserved award for his excellent performance.In one of the most inspired examples of casting against type in film history, Mary Tyler Moore plays Conrad's cold, distant, brittle mother Beth. Interestingly, in spite of the fact that her eponymous sitcom was the most successful TV series of the 1970s, she did not appear in a single film in that decade. This was her first big screen appearance since Elvis' last film "Change of Habit" in 1969 and her first worth mentioning since "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in 1967. Beth is a self-obsessed, unfeeling woman who is more concerned about appearances than her surviving son's emotional problems. She focuses all of her attention on maintaining her beautiful home which looks like something out of a magazine in order to create the illusion that the Jarretts are a happy, normal family. This is part of the reason that the casting works so well. Who doesn't love Mary Tyler Moore? Beth keeps Conrad at arm's length and, frankly, seems more than a little contemptuous of him at times. Her well-meaning husband Calvin comes to the conclusion that she may even be incapable of love. Before that, he said that Beth loved Buck but he also said that everyone thought that they had so much in common. If she did love him, I think that it was for the sole reason that he reminded her of herself. It is hinted that Beth may have inherited these characteristics from her own mother, who seems similarly cold.Donald Sutherland, one of the best actors of his generation, is likewise brilliant as Calvin, a good and decent man who tries his best to understand his son and do the right thing. Of the four major cast members, Sutherland was the only one who was not nominated for an Oscar for his performance, which I think he should have been as it is a fantastic performance. Perhaps it was because his character is more straightforward than Conrad and Beth but this is needed to ground the film and contrast their emotional problems with the more well-adjusted Calvin. Judd Hirsch, another veteran of a hugely popular 1970s sitcom, is perfect casting as Conrad's psychiatrist Dr. Tyrone Berger, whose somewhat confrontational style works very well in helping Conrad to heal and forgive himself for being unable to save Buck. He has less screen time compared to the other three main stars but Berger is a hugely important character who helps to hold the film together. Dinah Minoff is excellent in her one scene as Conrad's friend from the hospital Karen Aldrich, who seems cheerful and even tells Conrad to "cheer up" but eventually commits suicide. This sends Conrad into a downward spiral but he is thankfully able to recover. Elizabeth McGovern is very good as Conrad's would-be girlfriend Jeannine who tries her best to understand what he is going through. The same is true of his one-time best friend Joe, played by Fredric Lehne, but Conrad rejects his efforts as being around him reminds him too much of Buck. Adam Baldwin has a great small role as Conrad's confrontational "friend" Stillman who makes no effort to understand his feelings and even deliberately provokes him on one occasion. The great character actors M. Emmet Walsh and James B. Sikking also have nice small roles as Conrad's swimming coach Salan and Calvin's business partner Ray Hanley respectively. Redford has such a great eye for casting.Overall, this is a simply wonderful film which explores the material very respectfully and in an understated manner. After "Citizen Kane", "12 Angry Men" and "The Wicker Man", all of which are in my Top 20, this is the fourth best directorial debut film that I have seen. As it stands, this is probably my 23rd favourite film of all time.