Four-star movie: Ordinary People

[carbonel]

Ordinary People
Director: Robert Redford
1980

This was Robert Redford's first directorial gig, and it was a triumph. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (and another actor from the movie was also nominated), and a nomination for Best Actress. It was also the movie where Mary Tyler Moore showed that she could be serious as well as funny.

The thing I like best about this movie is the fact that it has Judd Hirsch as a competent psychologist who slowly helps Timothy Hutton turn his life around again. There's no miracle here (though there is one very cathartic scene), just the evolution of coming to realize that he can't be the perfect son, and that it's not his fault that his mother cares more about being normal and putting on a good face than in actually loving and caring for her traumatized son.

Comments

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Brilliant movie, but more like cinema verite for someone who grew up in that kind of suburb. It captured, accurately, the things I hated the most about that culture. I'll be happy if I never see it again.