Extraordinary Film - "Ordinary People" (1980)

Mat here.

Ordinary People (1980) tells the story of Conrad, a teenager who has gone through some painful times and now struggles to face the banal monotony of everyday life. His parents want to carry on as if nothing's wrong (though in very different ways), and Conrad eventually seeks help from a therapist.

We came to this movie with no expectations and were floored by the quality of the acting, writing, direction and cinematography.

The three principle actors, Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton, all give the performance of their careers. Hutton's performance in particular outshines just about any actor and role I'd care to name - early in the film, his anxiety is so palpable it's like he's vibrating off the screen. He was awarded a well deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work (despite having more screen time than Mary Tyler Moore was nominated for Best Actress).

The tragic banality of the dialogue is masterful, ramping up the discomfort and disconnection Conrad feels, and the therapy scenes are some of the best of their kind. Special mention from me goes to the cinematography - their are some truly exceptional sequences, compositions and one-shots (longs scenes where there are no edits), and they are all the more impressive given the bland suburban settings of the story.

This film marks the directorial debut of Robert Redford who won Best Director, and Alvin Sargent received Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

This film is not easy to watch, with lots of uncomfortable truths and themes of guilt, suicide and grief, but it is extremely rewarding and believable and we can understand it's nomination and win for Best Picture this year.

Danielle gave this a 94/100 and I gave it 95/100, equalling my score for Silence of the Lambs, and making it equal first place so far. My mum, Lyn scored it 75/100 - but she's a hard marker and it beat out "Coal Miner's Daughter" which is a personal fave of hers! Lyn's main complaint was the lack of exposition, which didn't bother us as much, probably because of the amount of time we've spent studying psych!

D here - and I had to add as a budding therapist myself it was great to see some serious therapy going on onscreen - no "Good Will Hunting" breakthroughs on the last session before his 18th birthday. Nasty and gritty and confrontational - just the way it should be! (Although I have yet to advocate masturbation to a patient - I'm usually trying to encourage them to cut down or at least stop doing it in public - but we're talking pretty different patient populations!