Written by Judith Guest, Alvin Sargent, and Nancy Dowd
Directed by Robert Redford

Ordinary People won the Oscar for best picture in 1980.  I was 14 at the time and about all I connected with was that Timothy Hutton was really cute.  Beyond that, this tale of a fractured suburban family seemed to have little in common with the life I led.  A few years later that would not be the case, and re-watching it any time now is something quite painful.

The story is one of a family attempting to go on after a terrible tragedy.  The Jarretts are an upper-middle-class family that is the one you’d think of for a Christmas card.  Even without that image, they seem perfect for that photo with an overstuffed chair in front of the fireplace and a tastefully decorated tree; Mom, Dad, two sons, and probably a dog as well.

That idyllic image is shattered by the accidental death of the older son.  It sets in motion the peeling back of the image to find a harsher truth to suburban family life.  There was balance when Buck (portrayed by Scott Doebler) was still alive.  He was the favorite of his mother, Beth (portrayed by Mary Tyler Moore) while Conrad (portrayed by Timothy Hutton) gravitated more to his father Calvin (portrayed by Donald Sutherland).  It works while Buck is in the picture.  Conrad might yearn for something more from his mother, but he accepts the family dynamic.

Once Buck is gone, however, in addition to the grief that envelops the family, the dynamic is shifted.  Conrad would like to move into the void he sees created and have the love his mother bestowed on Buck finally come to him.  Unfortunately, that’s not to be.  Beth’s grief over the loss of her favorite leads to anger and resentment of her younger son.

All this is revealed in the wake of Conrad’s own suicide attempt.  Wracked with guilt over the events of his brother’s death as well as the internal family struggles, he sees this as an escape.  It’s Calvin who is trying to piece the family back together.  It’s a family that had issues even before Buck’s death, but the fractures that exist can be denied in the aftermath of that event.

Ordinary People was Robert Redford’s first turn in the Director’s chair and I don’t think he could have scored any better.  The movie is an emotional one, driving characters through the wringer and testing any director’s abilities to get the emotional performance from his actors.  Too little emotion and they are not believable.  Too much emotion and they are over-doing it.  Take America’s sweetheart and cast her against type and get one of the best performances of her career out of her in that regard.  That was what he managed to pull off to perfection.  As I watched the film again, I was lost in the characters and their world, and seeing them blending into my own.  Yes, when someone young who is close to you dies the emotions they display here are very real, and often never healed.

The cast is superb and there’s not a performance I can complain about.  In addition to Redford’s work behind the camera, credit goes to those in front of the camera.  Just watch Timothy Hutton’s eyes when the boys are in the car stopped at the railroad tracks.  It’s a scene that tells quite a bit about what was going on in the family that everyone conspired to hide, and in lesser hands would have felt false.  Here, it’s a genuine moment between two brothers who have the common bond of growing up in the household they have.  What’s astounding as well isn’t that Hutton won an Oscar for his performance but that for some reason he won in the Supporting Actor category.  To me, Hutton’s character is the movie.

It’s Mary Tyler Moore who has the biggest stretch, though.  As Beth, she’s a far cry from Mary Richards.  She’s the mother who is doing everything right in the suburbs and expects the same from her family, for it’s all about appearances.  There are often biases in a family, but the outright contempt she shows toward her younger son is fairly shocking.  Buck fed into everything she liked about how things appeared on the surface, while Conrad represents the exact opposite.  He lets people see that the Jarrett corner of the world isn’t perfect and not only does she resent it, she outright can’t handle the fact that her son doesn’t fit the “perfect” mold and how that reflects on her.

Sutherland also gives what I think is his best dramatic performance.  He’s lost and just trying to make it better.  He likely never realized the fractures that existed before his son died, being content to work, come home, and have “quality family time” while never delving beneath the surface.  There’s no resentment on his part although there’s a growing distance to his wife who’s becoming more and more of a stranger.

Judd Hirsch as Conrad’s therapist is also fantastic, as is Elizabeth McGovern in what is essentially her first major acting role.

I can’t say Ordinary People is an enjoyable film.  It touches on family dynamics that are hard to see but exist. People handle adversity differently and not all of us are cut out to deal with what life throws at us.  Having seen several times what the death of someone so young does to a family, I can say it hits the mark on tearing apart the dynamic and leaving nothing the same in its wake in ways that people don’t think of.  It’s an emotional film that’s sometimes difficult to watch, but well worth it.