Ordinary People

Released:  September 19^th, 1980

Rated:  R

Studio:  Paramount Pictures

Starring:  Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton

Directed by:  Robert Redford

Written by:  Alvin Sargent

Personal Bias Alert:  haven’t read the book, few preconceived notions about those involved

6.5 of 10

            Let’s go back in time a bit.  It’s 1980, and you’re sitting in a movie theater watching the trailer for an intense family drama.  You think, Donald Sutherland makes sense, but what’s Mary Tyler Moore doing being so shrill?  And who is Timothy Hutton?  And does that say Robert Redford is the director!?  A few months later you’ll watch everyone but Sutherland attending the Oscars, with Hutton and Redford taking home trophies and the film being named Best Picture.

              I think it’s important to recognize just how much uncertainty must have hung over Ordinary People prior to its release.  It covers very difficult material with a first time director and a twenty year old actor making his feature film debut.  Moore and Judd Hirsch would have seemed miscast in their serious roles, leaving Sutherland as the only sure thing.  It doesn’t surprise me, then, to know that people reacted so strongly to such a solid movie.  There’s a lot to admire here, but I’m afraid I found it a bit overrated.

            Like I said, this is one intense family drama, detailing the crumbling of a well-to-do family after a devastating loss.  Sutherland and Moore star as the parents, but it’s Hutton as their teenage son, Conrad, who carries the film.  His depression is the most obvious and perhaps the most stereotypical; Conrad begins the film unable to eat or sleep, stumbling through the events of his days.  The part eventually balloons into something much more complex, and Hutton excels at making Conrad’s assorted triumphs and setbacks feel appropriately scaled.  It really is a wonderful performance, and is arguably the strongest aspect of the film.

            The portrait of the parents, in particular Donald Sutherland’s Calvin, is the other big standout.  Neither are the throwaway sort of parents that often appear in movies about teens.  Each have distinct personality traits and flaws, and their relationship with each other is as much a focus in the film as their relationship to Conrad.  What’s even more interesting is that they subvert the traditional gender roles by having the father be the sensitive one and the mother being more aloof and emotionally detached.  Moore does a good job, but she’s noticeably more one-note than Hutton and Sutherland.  Sutherland brings down the house with a couple late scenes that I wouldn’t change for the world.

            This core trio of characters is superbly written by Alvin Sargent, who was adapting from a novel by the same name.  The other characters aren’t as fleshed out, especially a nasty former friend of Conrad’s and the psychologist played by Hirsch.  I actually got annoyed with how stereotypical these two characters were, especially the psychologist, who I half expected at some point to tell Conrad to lie down and talk about his feelings.  I also found Sargent’s sense of pacing to be off, with a prolonged startup that spent several scenes rehashing character beats that we’d already seen.

            Redford’s direction is also a mixed bag.  He’s got solid fundamentals and is clearly comfortable with the style used in many of the late ‘60s and 70’s character-based films.  The problem is that he lacks a sense of personal style.  There’s no interesting framing or camera moves that could add layers to the story.  It’s mostly basic shot setups, and it makes me wonder if Redford was too uneasy to take any chances this early in his directing career.

            Despite the fact that Redford didn’t exactly impress me, I have to hang my lack of enthusiasm at the feet of screenwriter Alvin Sargent.  There were just a few too many missteps with his screenplay for me to totally get behind Ordinary People, even with performances as great as Hutton and Sutherland.

            Other Notes:

Ø  $50 an hour for a psychologist? Sign me up.

Ø  The future Lady Grantham played the girlfriend in her first feature film role.

Ø  That’s one bold ending.