WEEKEND MOVIE - Ordinary People (1980)

ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)

"Conrad. Let's have a great Christmas. Let's have...a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives. We can, you know...this could be the best one ever."

Dirctor: Robert Redford
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton, Judd Hirsch, M. Emmett Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff, Fredric Lehne

This Robert Redford directed Best Picture sets in peaceful suburbia, where a family suffers from the lost of one of its members. Conrad (Timothy Hutton), is a bright young man, who is tied down from his strengths because his mother, Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), keeps reminding him of the death of his brother. Calvin (Donald Sutherland), the father, is trapped between the fights and tension of his wife and child. "Ordinary People" brings us into the emotions of a broken family. The cast gives us a fantastic ensemble piece and the 3 leads are all Oscar worthy. Moore's selfish mother and Sutherland's loving father give us good chemistry. But Hutton's performance as Conrad is THE BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR PERFORMANCE OF ALL TIME. I'm serious.

"HAPPY?" FAMILY - Posing for a family picture, we have the selfish Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), the concerned Calvin (Donald Sutherland) and their troubled son Conrad (Timothy Hutton).

SELFISH NEEDS - Beth persuades her husband that this Christmas she wants to go to London and forget about Conrad's depression. She needs it and she wants to get away from the "scenery".

OSCAR WINNERS - Robert Redford won an Oscar for directing the suburban drama "Ordinary People" and the 19-year-old Timothy Hutton won one too for his portrayal as the depressed Conrad.

CONRAD SEES A SHRINK -
"Geez! You're really weird huh, what do you feel huh? Do you jerk off, or jack off, or whatever you call it?"
"What do you think?"
"What do I think? I think you're married to a fat lady and you go home and you fuck the living daylights out of her!"
"Sounds good to me."

WOOF! WOOF! "TRYING" TO COMMUNICATE -
"I made a 74 on a trig quiz."
"Oh really? Gosh I was aqful at trig."
"OH. Really? You took trig?"
"No...wait a minute...ha, did I take trig? Huh...anyway, I bought you two shirts they're on your bed."