Amazon.com Essentials:
Robert Redford made his Oscar-winning directorial debut with
this highly acclaimed, poignantly observant drama (based on the
novel by Judith Guest)
about a well-to-do family's painful adjustment to tragedy. Mary Tyler
Moore and Donald Sutherland play a seemingly happy couple who lose the
older of their two sons to a boating accident; Timothy Hutton plays
the surviving teenage son, who blames himself for his brother's death
and has attempted suicide to end his pain. They live in a meticulously
kept home in an affluent Chicago suburb, never allowing themselves to
speak openly of the grief that threatens to tear them apart. Only when
the son begins to see a psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch) does the veneer of
denial begin to crack, and Ordinary People thenceforth directly
examines the broken family ties and the complexity of repressed
emotions that have festered under the pretense of coping. Superior
performances and an Oscar-winning script by Alvin Sargent make this
one of the most uncompromising dramas ever made about the psychology
of dysfunctional families. There are moments--particularly related to
Mary Tyler Moore's anguished performance as a woman incapable of
expressing her deepest emotions--when this film is both intensely
involving and heartbreakingly real. No matter how happy and healthy
your upbringing was, there's something in this excellent film that
everyone can relate to. --Jeff Shannon
