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Ordinary PeopleRating:
Release Date: 01 March, 2004 Retail Price: $9.98 OUR Price: $9.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (17 total) |
Ordinary People Reviews
We are all just ordinary people
'Ordinary People' is one of those films that everyone can appreciate. Even if one has never been in this exact situation we have all still in one way or another felt the pain this family feels. Regardless of whether you feel 'Ordinary People' to be the best film of 80 or the film that stole the crown you really can't escape the weight a film like this carries. In the heartfelt and heartbreaking performances that seem almost too real we all can find a piece of ourselves and that's what makes this a brilliant film.
The film follows Beth and Calvin as they mourn the death of their eldest son Buck who died in a boating accident. Their youngest son Conrad is almost left in the cold, feeling blamed for the death not by just his parents but by himself. Because of this guilt, because of this pain he tries to end his life, and if it weren't for his fathers intervention he may have been successful. The film shows the growing animosity Beth has for her son, almost as if she wished he had drown and not her dear Buck. There's one scene in particular that really struck me, when Beth's parents were over and they wanted a picture of Conrad with his mother. The tension in her voice as she pleaded with them not to take their picture, it's heartbreaking.
Mary Tyler Moore's performance to me was the standout, far cry from her sitcom days. She showed every ounce of sincerity in what she was saying; how she was acting that an image of her tossing her hat into the air never once crossed my mind. She became Beth. Donald Sutherland is also a great actor, but his character being the quiet husband comes across background to the mother and the son which serve as the true body of the film. Calvin is the heart, but the heart is rarely seen. Timothy Hutton did brilliantly as Conrad, a boy so beat down by his guilt and so distraught over his mothers distaste for him that he can't function right. Judd Hirsch plays the psychiatrist Conrad is sent to that befriends him and helps him come to grips with his real feelings.
Between Redford's amazing directing debut and Alvin Sargent wonderful adaptation of Judith Guest's novel of the same name you have a great movie waiting to happen, and when you add the powerful performances by everyone in the cast you get that great movie. Highly recommended to anyone!
Perfect!
From the beginning, throughout and until the end, every syllable, nuance and movement was perfect. All acting was perfect..a transluscent metamorphosis tunneling deep through the depths of the fragile human spirit. Mary Tyler Moore was phenomenal as the narcissistic suburbanite as was Donald Sutherland and the son. A model for complex character treatment. Five hundred stars and three thousand thumbs up!
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