Ordinary People (1980)

With Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, and Timothy Hutton.
Directed by Robert Redford.

I haven't seen many of the films from the late seventies and early eighties aside from the big ones like Apocalypse Now.  Ordinary People has always been kind of the big one, the Best Picture winner from the year before I was born that was never on TV as i grew up and really isn't mentioned when people talk about great movies   Even the tltle, Ordinary People, is   kind of extraordinary in its ordinariness.  I decided awhile ago to put it at the top of my Netflix queue and this weekend I sat down to watch it.


The background: a lawyer (Sutherland) and his stay-at-home housewife (Moore) live in suburban Chicago.  They have a son, Conrad (Hutton), who is a junior in high school and who has returned home recently from a stay at the hospital after attempting suicide.  It is later learned that there was another son, a year or two older than Conrad, who died not long ago in a boating accident.

The scenes with Conrad and Dr. Berger (Hirsch) were well written and well acted, especially the last one after Conrad learns of Karen, his friend from the hospital.  As the movie went on, their relationship grew and grew and Conrad satisfyingly benefited from his sessions with the doctor.  A lot of the time in the movies, a patient only benefits at the end of the movie after a final climactic breakthrough.  Though this does happen in the movie, Conrad's interactions with Karen and the girl who stands in front of him in the school choir, Jeannine, showed how he was progressing and learning about himself.  Timothy Hutton was outstanding as the jerky kid on edge, cut off from the world so that he wouldn't feel pain.  Just totally convincing and his Best Supporting Actor Oscar was well earned.

Donald Sutherland as the father Calvin and MTM as the mother Beth were fine as well.  I enjoyed Donald as Calvin as the movie went on.  At first, his development was a little slow, but he started getting things together and then he went to see Dr. Berger himself.  They only had one scene, but it was effective in showing Calvin realizing the family dynamic that up until then he hadn't been able to see and articulate.  The dining room scene was just sad and I felt for Calvin.  But then he and Conrad the next morning had their talk and I was glad they seemed to have reached a new understanding of each other.

MTM as the mother Beth...  I've read that this was a breakout role for MTM as she escaped Laura Petrie and Mary Richards.  She was fine.  She certainly played the housewife, pillar in her community, very well.  Throughout the movie, I had the feeling she wasn't really expressing anything.  Which given the end and the dining room scene I guess was the point of her role as she had buried whatever was lovable and loving in herself with Buck.  But she didn't engage me in a way where i felt like she was really pulling off a great performance.  Maybe she would have been more convincing if I could hear her voice.

Judd Hirsch got a Best Supporting Actor nod for Dr. Berger and rightly so.  He lost to Tim Hutton, who I think should have been nominated for Best Actor as it really was his movie.  Judd's psychiatrist was just excellent as a person who listened and offered effective counsel.  He asked all the right questions of his patients in a way that got them thinking without resorting to the usual movie shrink cliches.

Alvin Sargant won for Best Writing (Adapted).  His dialogue flowed and was natural for all the characters young and old.

This was Robert Redford's debut as a director.  From the opening shots of the trees in autumn all the way to the end in the backyard, Redford knew what he wanted and he got it.  It got him Best Director.

Finally, the late seventies/early eighties vibe was strong in this one and the nostalgia was heavy.  From the clothes to the cars to the front doors of the houses with the three diagonal windows, it captured its time.

Highly recommended.