Ordinary People
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Movie Reviews of Ordinary People
Movie Review: Standing O
Summary: 5 Stars
The subtle nuance of human interaction and relationships isn't so much what is said--but what is not said. A pause. A gesture. A glance. Nonverbal cues betray our true feelings and emotions; they amplify our thoughts. Which is one of the major reasons (out of many) I so very much enjoy ORDINARY PEOPLE, Robert Redford's haunting, often disturbing film depicting family pain and dysfunction. Although this film ushered in the Eighties--with its layered hairstyles and wacky threads--ORDINARY PEOPLE is completely and totally timeless; no matter what the period, people are people. That's the simplistic beauty of this movie.
All of us cope with tragedy in our own way--and when a tight-knit family of four loses a member (its firstborn son) to a boating accident, while the other son survives, the tragedy can become unbearable. The grief. The loss. The pain. The guilt. Into this painful world the viewer is introduced to an affluent upper middle class family: Calvin, Beth, and Conrad. Conrad (Timothy Hutton), who watched his brother drown, has attempted suicide, misses his time spent in the hospital (a refuge from an insurmountable world), and only wants to find some inner peace and control to relieve his guilt. Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) is a classic case of repression; bottling everything up inside, she puts on a Stepford-type facade and allows no one to penetrate the veneer--especially Conrad, who she blames for her other son's death. Yet Calvin (Donald Sutherland) moves me the most as the grieving, compassionate father trying to hold his fragile family together. His pain is immeasurable as he tries to help his son and come to grips about his loveless wife. Judd Hirsch is also remarkable playing Conrad's shrink; his straight-forward, shoot from the hip style furnishes Conrad with his only true emotional outlet.
ORDINARY PEOPLE is beautiful, poignant, jarring, painful, and compelling. Made decades ago, Redford's message is timeless: We as people may be ordinary, but our interactions and relationships are anything but.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Movie Review: Auspicious directorial debut!
Summary: 5 Stars
From Alvin Sargent 's script, this film marks with firm step the first incursion of Robert Redford as director, and the result has been overwhelming.
With such material Redford bet for a so delicate and so hard theme that seems to be inspired in a Bergman film.
A familiar tragedy originates an absolute lack of emotional equilibrium around the members of a middle class family. His elder son has been awfully and touched by this significant loss and suffers serious deviations in his emotive behavior, blaming himself about it. Terrible revelations along the film will involve us from start to end. But there is still more, his mother is a human being unable to inspire love, transmit confidence and elicit human warmth. These emotive scarcities will surround his intimate and outer world, creating an invisible but very defined frontier of self sufficiency isolating practically of all those who esteem and love her.
From the times of a Long day 's journey into the night, Guess who is coming to dinner, The last picture show and Kramer vs. Kramer we had not watched such kind of potent statement around a visible state of things that carved in relief with such crudeness and realism such familiar portrait.
Timothy Hutton got his best achievement in his career. But the honors also go to Mary Tyler Moore featuring the role of this obsessive and emotionally invalid mother; Donald Sutherland made a very vibrant acting as the wounded father who is stood in the middle of the tragedy. He represents the tolerance and the equilibrium trying to deal against the painful circumstances and making the best he can to avoid the unavoidable collapse
Robert Redford will be always remembered by his notable contribution to the enriching of the cinematographic language. He elevated the rank of the drama and made it possible to materialize those little and painful familiar disagreements in the screen with surprising results, and additionally to have thought in Sundance Festival Prize for Independent Directors will ennoble him for ever in the future 's memory.
Movie Review: A triumph of naturalism in filmmaking
Summary: 5 Stars
A very realistic look at how an "ordinary" suburban family is affected by a young man's accidental death. Timothy Hutton stars as the neglected younger brother whose feelings of guilt have led him to a failed suicide attempt. His recovery, and how he and his family attempt to return to some kind of normalcy, is the focus of the film. His father (Donald Sutherland) tries to be understanding, but doesn't know how to help him, while his mother (played by Mary Tyler Moore) is distant and often antagonistic, unable to get beyond the loss of her beloved first-born; she just wants to get away from the son who she can't help but blame. Judd Hirsch is excellent as the psychiatrist who is helping our protagonist through his depression and isolation.
This was Robert Redford's directorial debut, and every detail is just spot on. The whole film is so powerful yet so convincing one can't help but be moved by it. All of the actors are perfect in their roles (most of them were nominated for Oscars) and every shot is as natural as if we were sitting there with them. In terms of plotting, most of the "action" has occurred before the film starts; we'll see enough to get the picture. Rather than wallow in the physical horrors of a young man's death, Redford is trying to show how people deal with tragedy in their lives, or fail to, and how difficult it is for us "ordinary people" to talk about the things that really matter to us, even (especially) with the people we care most about. A triumph of naturalism in filmmaking.
All that said, this is a very somber film, which may not be everyone's cup of tea. It addresses very serious issues in very serious ways, without the hyperbole that sometimes accompanies such efforts, but entertaining it's not. If you're just not the self-reflective type, odds are you really should watch this movie, but you won't enjoy it.
Movie Review: Quiet but enduring classic... deserved its Oscars.
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember being in a dormitory TV room when "Ordinary People" won the Oscar for Best Picture, and the guys screamed and hissed and booed and some stormed out.
And why? I knew immediately that it was because "Raging Bull" had lost.
I'm not deriding "Raging Bull" in any way-- it was a fine film, and the directing/acting was terrific... But I knew very well that depite "Bull"s admitted quality, this room of gorillas were furious and indignant not because they really appreciated the artistry of that film, but they wanted a macho film with lots of scenes of guys beating the hell out of each other to win... Some movie-goers would also vote for "Pulp Fiction" and even "Kill Bill" over, say, "Ordinary People" for Best Picture as the latter has no graphic violence.
It's that simple, and that silly.
The suggestion that this win was one of the greatest travesties in Acadamy award history is--- well, it's just a buncha raging bull.
"Bull" was good, but "Ordinary People"s haunting (there's that word again), finely textured, understated view of a disintegrating middle-class family after the death with which none of them can deal of the in-house golden-boy, is the more affecting film. Some may claim the movie is now "dated" in that so many pictures have followed focusing on or dissecting middle class suburban life, but I've generally found those to be either too 80's-style-self-conscious, and/or too smug, and just quirkily unconnected to reality (and please dont confuse "Terms of Endearment" nor "American Beauty" with "Ordinary People"!)
"People" succeeds through understatement and lack-of-pretense, and from the fact that it was filmed in a now-bygone era in which posturing and political correctness weren't required from the script or the participants.
The Academy got it right.
Movie Review: An amazing film
Summary: 5 Stars
(... This movie) won a Best Picture Oscar, so I figured it would be good. I had no idea. Ordinary People is an astonishing movie where nothing is as it seems. The title itself is ironic, because although the Jared family seems like your typical American family, they are by no means so. Mary Tyler Moore plays Beth, the emotionally retentive mother who would rather not face the unseen demons that are rapidly tearing their family apart. Her performance captures the inner coldness and turmoil that is necessary to the character. Donald Sutherland is also excellent as Calvin, the sociable father who feels somewhat responsible for the problems of the family and wants healing. The regret and sadness of his character shine through, what an excellent job. Judd Hirsch is Dr. Berger, the psychiatrist who helps the family try to heal. But the movie is stolen by Timothy Hutton, who plays the young son Conrad, who had previously attempted suicide. His portrayal of the anguished, emotionally dead Conrad is a virtuoso performance. Eventually, through the help of Dr. Berger, Conrad is able to stop blaming himself for the death of his brother and move on with his life. Perhaps the most tension-filled scene in the movie for me was when Conrad found out that his friend had committed suicide and he goes into the bathroom and turns on the warm water and we see the scars on his wrists, and we can only wait to see if he is going to try it again. Another thing, brilliant direction by Robert Redford. Instead of using indulgent film shots or camera tricks, he just allows the camera to focus on the action, the right approach, even though he might have been tempted to try that kind of thing to prove himself in his first film. This is a great movie, one of the best ever made. Make it the next one you see. However, the DVD version is a little plain (...).