Ordinary People
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Movie Reviews of Ordinary People
Movie Review: the truest form of raw human emotion
Summary: 5 Stars
For anyone who hasn't seen "Ordinary People," you really should see it right away. I first watched it as a huge fan of Mary Tyler Moore. What I saw, I never expected. Mary Tyler Moore breaks her comedic, enduring style to play a hauntingly distant mother. The move is absolutely brilliant. At first, I was angered, throwing pillows at the television in seeing my hero play a character who baffled me so. Then, from my love for her, grew a profound admiration for her talent. No role or portrayal has ever affected me in the same way. Adding to MTM's sheer brilliance, is the amazing performances turned in by Donald Sutherland and Timothy Hutton. Donald Sutherland, who is able to steel a movie with small roles, stays in the background of attention in this film. Yet, at the same time, his portrayal of the pathetic father, trying to hold his family together, is amazing and overlooked. Timothy Hutton is very much deserving of the Oscar he won for his performance, although it should have been a best actor as opposed to best supporting actor. As the depressed son, trying to find his place back in society, Hutton displays his talent at drawing us into a character and trying to understand what he is going through. Judd Hirsch, plays his psychiatrist, and is equally amazing. It is a far better portrait of a psychatrist than Good Will Hunting ever thought of portraying. He is the psychiatrist anyone would want to go to in times of trouble.This picture is the best dramatic film of all time. While the ordinary is the upper middle class ordinary, it is like any family dealing with loss. Mary Tyler Moore gives us the greatest display of acting since Katharine Hepburn took the screen. As strong as Sissy Spacek's performance in Coal Miner's Daughter was, it does not compare to the profound and deep portrayal Mary Tyler Moore weaves us in. Robert Redford excercised brilliant casting for his Directorial Debut. He further enhances his brilliance with the style and score of the film. The story is a classic, and the film remains true to Judith Guest's novel. The film will affect you every time you see it. This film is not to be missed. It truely is one of the greatest films of all time.
Movie Review: you tell me the meaning of happy
Summary: 5 Stars
The moving film 'Ordinary People' details a family recovering from one son's accidental death and another son's failed suicide attempt. Conrad Jarrett (Timothy Hutton) is the teenage son, dealing with post-traumatic stress; he almost died along with his brother, whom he watched drown, and memories of his near suicide hang over him. Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), his mother, plays the perfect housewife, beautiful, active, charming, and all too practical. Calvin (Donald Sutherland), the compassionate father, is caught between his fragile son and brittle wife. We follow the parents, as they receive unhelpful advice from friends and colleagues, and Conrad, as he attempts to readjust to school life after returning from a psychiatric hospital. A psychiatrist, Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch), causes Conrad to confront his feelings.
Robert Redford emphasizes the pristine homes of affluent families and their amusingly mundane small talk, masking the deeper issues in these individuals' lives. The dialogue is funny, introspective, and believable. Because of the presence of a psychiatrist and a focus on intense emotional upheaval, characters delve deep into feelings. Sometimes the theories and speeches come across as dated and affected; symbols and realizations are at times overdone. Still, the film holds up remarkably well after thirty years.
The acting is all around excellent. Hutton is lovely as the awkward Conrad, internally tumultuous and outwardly tense. As the genial but passive father, Sutherland ably portrays Calvin's desire to appease his wife and aid his pained but impenetrable son. Moore is remarkable as Beth, a woman whose intense selfishness, resentment, and fear emerge as smiling, rigid perfectionism. Hirsch's is an appealing presence in a rare positive portrayal of a psychiatrist, and Conrad's teenage peers, both obtuse and guileless, are realistic.
Pachelbel's Canon comprises almost the entire, spare score. This can be grating, but other melodies are usually blessedly subtle. 'Ordinary People' ultimately suffers a touch from time and contrivance, but, overall, it a powerful, therapeutic depiction of a family striving to push through grief and depression.
Movie Review: "Ordinary People" deserves more than 5 stars!
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this movie on the big screen when it was released in 1980 - I was just 14 years old. Timothy Hutton was a newcomer, but I had grown up watching, and adoring Mary Tyler-Moore on TV on her show, and reruns of "The Dick Van Dyke Show". It was somewhat startling to see her in this role of the icy-cold Beth Jarrett, but after a few moments on-screen one forgets completely that we're watching "Mare!" and she instantly becomes this character.I can't say enough about this movie - it has always been one of my top five favorite all-time films.
Robert Redford (who won a Best Director Oscar) did a superb job casting and directing it. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but can anyone imagine other actors in the roles of "Conrad" (Timothy Hutton - who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), "Calvin" (incredibly, heart-breakingly-portrayed by Donald Sutherland)and of course "Beth"? Who other than Judd Hirsch can you imagine bringing such tenderness, caring and compassion to the character of Conrad's psychiatrist, "Dr. Berger"?
As another reviewer stated so succinctly, there are so many layers to this film, you literally can't blink, or you'll miss something. In fact, 23 years later, having watched it maybe fifty times, I still have a new realization in every viewing.
I've also read the book, and while it was a wonderful book, the movie is far and away more emotional.
Be prepared; this is not a "feel-good" movie by any stretch of the imagination. It is thought-provoking, tragic, emotional and gut-wrenching, and it might make you re-evaluate aspects of your life. The subject-content (accidental death, severe depression, suicide) is very serious and can be upsetting or even depressing.
This film also won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1980. I must add that no matter how incredible the entire cast, Timothy Hutton is the STAR of this film, and the Oscar he won, though well-earned, should have been for Best Actor. Whomever thinks that the role of Conrad was a supporting one, needs to re-evaluate that opinion.
If you're considering purchasing this movie, do not consider further - just order it. It's one of those "must-have" for your collection.
You will not regret it.
Movie Review: Ordinary People - brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
Since this movie was released in theaters in the '80's, it has been one of my all-time favorites. Each time I watch it, something new strikes me. The truths are not always obvious, "new" details strike at each viewing. This movie stands alone in its quiet truths about a family's difficulties: following a series of tragedies involving their two sons: the accidental death of the older son, and the attempted sucide of the younger son Conrad, played by Timothy Hutton. The story opens when Conrad is desperately trying to move past his self-blame. The various reactions to these events are what the story is about; subsequent emotions are either slowly revealed or more stubbornly squelched as in the case of the mother, played by Mary Tyler Moore. High school friends are also grieving and relationships are so realistically altered forever. That is real life. The character studies are absolutely brilliant, as is the web of relationships as they are also revealed and further developed. The acting is convincing and I would even say, in my opinion, perfect. While all is superbly handled in this film, to me, from the first time I've seen it, above all this is Timothy Hutton's movie. His portrayal of young Conrad is heart-wrenching and so incredibly sincere. How he expresses in voice, facial expression, and posture his emotional turmoil is nothing short of genius. His character has been dealt a cruel hand to play and he is having much difficulty, but as he faces his own emotions, this has a chain effect in every direction, from his relationships and activities in high school, to his relationship with his parents, inadvertently causing them to also deal with their own emotions (or not). The kindness and insight of his psychiatrist is played beautifully by Judd Hirsch. There are times in my own life that this film is too painful to watch, but in general it has become a seasonal tradition to launch autumn and the following holiday season. The visual effects of beautiful fall colors, warm lighting, stark emptiness of that overly tidy house, and the normalcy of high school activities all work together to round out the ordinary surrounding of these "Ordinary People."Movie Review: An extremely moving family drama
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie profoundly affected me when I first saw it 20 years ago, and watching it today its impact remains undiminished.In the wrong hands, this could so easily have become yet another dreary family drama in the TV Movie of the Week tradition, but first-time director Robert Redford skillfully avoids all the cliches. His restrained direction ensures that the movie never descends into melodrama, and the big moments are superbly realised without the use of soaring strings or other Hollywood devices. Consequently, there is not a single moment that does not entirely ring true, and the movie is all the more heartwrenching for Redford's honest approach.
He is helped by a uniformly excellent cast. From all accounts, Redford is (as you might expect) an actor's director, and here he draws superb performances from two actors in atypical roles. Donald Sutherland is deeply moving in the difficult role of the father unable to comprehend why his family is falling apart, and Mary Tyler Moore is equally good as his emotionally repressed wife. The latter's performance is all the braver when one recalls that Tyler Moore's role mirrored her own off-screen turmoil at that time. For like the character of Beth in the movie, she too had recently lost a son, and was struggling to come to terms with her loss.
Judd Hirsch and Elizabeth McGovern are also impressive as, respectively, the psychiatrist and choirfriend who try to help Conrad, the troubled younger son of Tyler Moore and Sutherland. Conrad is played by 20-year-old Timothy Hutton in a mesmerising performance that will leave few viewers unaffected. Perfectly capturing the suicidal anguish of his character, Hutton rightly won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in this pivotal role. (Though why he was not nominated for Best Actor is beyond me; his is, after all, the central performance in the movie). Given the degree of Hutton's talent, one can only look in dismay at the downward spiral of his career in recent years.
Ordinary People was one of the finest American movies of the 1980s, and its themes are as relevant today as they were two decades ago. I highly recommend this genuine classic.