Ordinary People

Ordinary People is an Oscar-winning film about an affluent family that falls apart after the death of a beloved son. The 1980 Best Picture winner was directed by Robert Redford, and stars Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, and Timothy Hutton.

• Donald Sutherland

• Mary Tyler Moore

• Judd Hirsch

• Timothy Hutton

• M. Emmet Walsh

• Elizabeth McGovern

• Dinah Madoff

"An austere and delicate examination of the ways in which a likable family falters under pressure and struggles, with ambiguous results, to renew itself." -Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine Time Magazine

"It is Redford's ability to let the movie breathe...that forces the viewer to experience the film on a visceral level." -Sarah Chauncey, Reel.com Reel.com

"The film looks austere and serious, rather as if it had been shot inside a Frigidaire, and the oppressiveness of the images tends to strangle laughter, even at the most absurd excesses of Alvin Sargent's script." -Dave Kehr, Chicago ReaderChicago Reader

An upper-middle class American family, the Jarretts, struggle to rebuild their lives after the eldest son, Buck, dies in a boating accident. The younger Jarrett son, Conrad (Timothy Hutton), suffers greatly over the loss and has recently attempted suicide over his grief. Having just been released from a psychiatric hospital after his failed suicide attempt, Conrad has a difficult time rejoining normal high school life and connecting with his parents. His father, Calvin (played by Donald Sutherland) is desperate to save Conrad from his spiraling depression. His mother, Beth (played by Mary Tyler Moore), on the other hand is desperate to save face in front of the community and is bent on normalcy at all costs. With the help of therapist, Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch), both Conrad and Calvin learn to process their grief and recognize that Beth is incapable of showing either of them love. Together father and son work toward a happiness that has escaped them for so long.