Ordinary People (1980)

People are voting emotionally.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This movie deserves a 10 for me because I could relate to it. I don't want spill my guts about my childhood on here, but I think any family who has experienced a horrific life-changing event of losing a child/sibling needs to see this. It shows that we are all human, fallible and cope with death uniquely. It's important that the surviving family come together instead of lashing out at each other. Oh, and seek therapy!

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.

Ordinary People is a good movie with a well developed plot and a great cast. It is a very moving film as we follow a young boy struggling to coup with the loss of his older brother. It has some very hard hitting moments, and certainly does not beat around the bushes in terms of depression, the cast is all around impressive, the highlights certainly being Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore for me, who are both very convincing as a troubled couple who are trying to keep their son safe, while managing their own personal traumas. I did find the film to be very preachy on the subject of mental health, it was really shoving information on how to coup with it and maintaining a healthy one. There were times where the dialogue felt more like a theatre in education piece rather than two real humans having a proper, wholesome conversation. While it is one of the most vital parts of the movie, I found the scenes between Timothy Hutton and Judd Hirsch to be very poor. There was a complete lack of chemistry between them and Hirsch seemed very out of place in this therapist role. All of their sessions together seemed like Hutton was trying to give all he could, with Hirsch giving nothing back in return, he is a far better comedic actor. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I do not think it deserves the praise it has received, there are far better films with less Oscars. Not without its flaws, Ordinary People is still an impressive directorial debut from Robert Redford, I would recommend it if you are looking for a good drama, just do not go out of your way to see it. A young boy struggles to coup with his mundane life following the death of his older brother. Best Performance: Donald Sutherland / Worst Performance: Judd Hirsch

The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.Robert Redford and Timothy Hutton both won Academy Awards for their respective debuts: Redford as Best Director and Hutton, in his first film (he had previously appeared on television), as Best Supporting Actor. The film marked Mary Tyler Moore's career breakout from the personality of her other two famous roles as Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Moore's complex performance was well-received and obtained a nomination for Best Actress. The film also won Best Picture for 1980.Roger Ebert gave it four stars, calling it "one of the year's best films, probably of the decade" and later named it the fifth best film of the year 1980. Gene Siskel likewise ranked it the second best film of 1980. Both of them ended up giving "Raging Bull" a higher slot on the year's list, which is probably correct. The movie is a bit dry, and maybe does not age as well as it could.