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Ordinary People (1980)

tomatometer

91

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 3

Though shot through with bitterness and sorrow, Robert Redford's directorial debut is absorbing and well-acted.

83

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1

Though shot through with bitterness and sorrow, Robert Redford's directorial debut is absorbing and well-acted.

audience

85

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 20,298

My Rating

Movie Info

Robert Redford's directorial debut ended up the 1980 Oscar winner for Best Picture. It is a simple but painfully emotional story of the disintegration of a "perfect" family. Teenager Conrad (Timothy Hutton) lives under a cloud of guilt after his brother drowns after their boat capsizes in Lake Michigan. Despite intensive therapy sessions with his psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch), Conrad can't shake the belief that he should have died instead of his brother; nor do his preoccupied parents (Donald

R, 2 hr. 4 min.

Drama

Aug 14, 2001

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (34) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (3) | DVD (12)

What Redford accomplishes is to provide an excellent portrait of how well families can hide their inner turmoil from the prying eyes of outsiders.

April 30, 2009 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An austere and delicate examination of the ways in which a likable family falters under pressure and struggles, with ambiguous results, to renew itself.

February 20, 2009 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A powerfully intimate domestic drama.

February 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

December 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comments (3)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An intelligent, perceptive, and deeply moving film.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A moving, intelligent and funny film about disasters that are commonplace to everyone except the people who experience them.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment (1)
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Better than forever being dismissed with a huffy "I can't believe that beat Raging Bull".

March 13, 2011 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comment
Antagony & Ecstasy

Story of emotional honesty is best for older kids.

December 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (3)
Common Sense Media

Only reaching Chekhovian heights in its dreams.

February 23, 2008 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Fully deserving of its many accolades.

February 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

For an Oscar-winner it's unusually bleak but the power is very carefully controlled.

November 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

This dissection of family mores in upscale suburbia is emotionally powerful, decidedly unsentimental, and the suitable text for the feature directorial debut of Robert Redford.

December 23, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Robert Redford chose to adapt Judith Guest's novel as his first directorial effort, with impressive results.

December 13, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A beautifully acted film about the impact of a family tragedy on those who blame themselves and others.

December 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | Comment
Oscar Guy

An actors' movie and an advert for therapy, extremely bitter, but handsomely directed in its elegant pretentiousness.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

The 1980 drama hasn't aged well.

October 21, 2005 Comment (1)

It is Redford's ability to let the movie breathe...that forces the viewer to experience the film on a visceral level.

November 24, 2004 Comment
Reel.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Ordinary People

Deeply involving family drama, wealthy in emotion, honesty and vigor. Every step of the way it successfully grabs your attention, yet never once going too far or undermining its realism. The tears, the tantrums, the frustrations and breakdowns - all of it acted out in a riveting display of first-rate performances.

May 23, 2007
CloudStrife84
Mike S

Super Reviewer

I found this portrait of a family crumbling apart in the wake of tragedy to be meerely really good instead of excellent or classic. Maybe I've just seen this type of thing enough to where it really has to be something to stand out...and this film didn't do that for me. Maybe it's because I'm still mad it stoel the

March 8, 2011
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

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