Ordinary People
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Robert Redford’s grand opus entitled “Ordinary People” is about just that ordinary people. Which is why it was so remarkable that a film about really ordinary people could make such a significant impact when it was first released. Well I might have over exaggerated a bit. After all we are all a bit extraordinary. The story of the film revolves around a family who are suffering a tragic loss. After a freakish boating accident Buck Jarrett, brother of Conrad Jarrett and son of Calvin and Beth Jarrett passes away. The Jarrett’s each deal with the tragedy in their own way. Calvin attempts to remain upbeat; Beth bottles up her grief in order to save “face”. And Conrad who at first believes that it was his fault Buck died, attempts suicide, is placed in a facility and then is released supposedly after he has been “cured”. However Conrad still feels out of place and at the suggestion of his previous doctor is told to see therapist Tyrone Berger to help him readjust. Once he begins going to therapy he realizes that he was not really at fault at all, and that despite his parent’s efforts certain things cannot be dusted under the rug. The moving performances of Tim Hutton, as the troubled Conrad and Mary Tyler Moore as his cold-hearted mother Beth, gives the viewer a reason to forgive Redford’s passive direction. Though the film remains an ordinary one mainly due to Redford’s abilities as a director, the entire cast resuscitates a film that desperately needed CPR.
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