Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Oscar Project #53: Ordinary People (1980)



Ever since I watched it a couple of days ago, I’ve been trying to decide whether or not the title Ordinary People is ironic or meant in earnest. If it’s serious, then I think that Robert Redford (well, I guess the author of the novel would be more to blame) doesn’t have a very good idea of what ordinary people are like. The protagonists are wealthy, live in a giant house, had a maid at one point, and so on. But maybe they meant that these guys have problems just like ordinary people do.

Either way, these folks certainly do have problems. Plenty of them, as a matter of fact. Before the movie even starts, the elder son dies in a boating accident, a tragedy that serves as a catalyst for the most, if not all, of the events in the film. Oh, and the younger son (Timothy Hutton) attempted suicide and was placed in a mental hospital, which also took place prior to the evens in the movie.

So… yeah. If these are the problems we don’t see, then you can probably imagine that the situations we do aren’t exactly going to be a barrel of laughs.

Timothy Hutton was on the boat the night of the accident, and he has a nasty case of survivor’s guilt. He blames himself for his brother’s death, even though he didn’t really have anything to do with it, other than happening to be there when it occurred. He’s messed up in the head because of it, and understandably, his parents, played by Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore, are pretty messed up too.

Although he resisted for a long time, Hutton finally agrees to visit a psychiatrist to help him work through his problems. The shrink, played by Judd Hirsch, is not all a stereotypical movie version of a psychiatrist. He’s portrayed very positively, and he really does have a positive effect on Hutton’s life.

I don’t remember them ever appearing on screen at the same time, but having both Mary Tyler Moore and Judd Hirsch in the same film made it feel almost like watching Nick at Nite when I was a kid. You know, a very dark, depressing version of Nick at Nite where they take out all the jokes and replace them with death and despair. Kind of like the modern incarnation of Nick at Nite, come to think of it.

Moore, though, is almost totally unrecognizable when compared to her television days. She looks the same, sure, but her character here is as far removed from Laura Petrie or Mary Richards as you can get in terms of personality. Beth Jarrett is a cold, bitter woman, almost evil in some ways. There’s playing against type, and then there’s playing against type.

Sutherland, on the other hand, is the foundation of the family, and he tries desperately to keep them together. He sometimes seems overly soft, but he means well. The problem is that his son’s problems run so deep that it sometimes becomes impossible to do anything about them.

Hirsch could never solve the mystery of Latka Gravas.
Conrad, the son, played by Timothy Hutton, can be frustrating at times, but he’s not unbelievable. His performance was extremely convincing, leading to Hutton, at 20, becoming the youngest ever winner for Best Supporting Actor, a record that still stands today. Even at his worst, Conrad still manages us to make us care for him. He might be acting completely irrationally, but that spark of hope still exists.

I thought Ordinary People was a surprisingly good film, even if the plot is the sort of thing I read over and over again in my undergraduate adolescent literature class. But I suppose it’s such a popular storyline because just about everyone can identify with it, maybe not to the extent of the Jarrett family, but at some level.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, though, it’s again the performances that make the film stand out. It’s well written and directed[1], but without the acting skills of Sutherland, Moore, Hutton, and Hirsch, it easily could have become a typical Lifetime movie. It stands out thanks to the talents of its performers.

And by the way, did you know that Judd Hirsch appeared in two Best Picture winners? In another 21 years, he will have a minor role in A Beautiful Mind. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s two more appearances in Best Picture winners than Katharine Hepburn, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, and Lauren Bacall combined.

This means nothing, of course, but it is something I think about. Why do I get to see Franklyn Farnum[2] six times but not a single sighting from the aforementioned group? It just seems so unfair. No offense to Judd or anything.


[1] This was Robert Redford’s debut directorial role.
[2] Yes, that’s a real actor, and he has the record for appearing in the most Best Pictures.

No comments:

Post a Comment