Ordinary People

 

Ordinary People 1980

• Director: Robert Redford
• Seen by this director: The Conspirator
• Based on the book by Judith Guest
• Cast: Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton, Judd Hirsch, Elizabeth McGovern, M Emmett Walsh, Dinah Manoff, Fredric Lehne
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Mary Tyler Moore – The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Dick van Dyke Show
• Donald Sutherland – Ad Astra, The Hunger Games 1-4, The Eagle, The Pillars of the Earth, Cold Mountain, A Dry White Season, Klute, Johnny Got His Gun, M*A*S*H
• Timothy Hutton – The Ghost Writer, Secret Window, Beautiful Girls, Iceman, Daniel
• Judd Hirsch – this and that
• M Emmett Walsh – this and that
• Elizabeth McGovern – Downton Abbey, Woman in Gold, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Angels Crest, Racing with the Moon, If Not for You, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Why? Mary Tyler Moore
• Seen: 16 February 2023      

       Wealthy, white suburban Chicago family, Beth (MTM), Calvin (Sutherland), and troubled son Conrad (Hutton) struggle to maintain a veneer of normalcy after the older son Bucky died in an accident. Conrad has tried to commit suicide and spent some months in a psychiatric hospital. He is now seeing Dr Berger (Hirsch).

       The family is falling apart.

       It is quite powerful, and the acting is good but the dialog is often trite and simplistic.

       Still, I’m glad I’ve finally seen it. It only took 43 years. 

4* of 5