A number of years ago, I saw Francois Truffault's film, Day For Night, and in it is a sequence where the character Truffault plays recalls how he caught the film bug. The film flashes back to his boyhood, back to the cinema where Citizen Kane was playing. In the dark of night, he sneaks over to the cinema, steals the movie poster, and runs away gleefully with his prize.
I didn't steal any movie posters, but my Day For Night is Robert Redford's outstanding directorial debut, Ordinary People. I first saw Ordinary People in a theater in 1981, when it was contending for the Best Picture Oscar it eventually won. I cannot remember another drama that so effectively combines humor and tension.
Ordinary People tells the tale of the Jarrett family, who live in Lake Forest, Illinois, and are trying to pretend that their lives are getting back to normal after one of the Jarrett sons drowns in a boating accident. The other son, Conrad (Timothy Hutton) attempted suicide and wound up in an institution. Now back in the outside world, Conrad is trying to readjust to the life of a high school student. He still has unresolved issues, and his father, Calvin (Donald Sutherland), has reminded his son that they have a deal that Conrad see a psychiatrist if he should need one.
Conrad's mother, Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), never visited, and Calvin covered for her. Life, according to Beth, is not supposed to be the way it has become. They're supposed to travel, be with friends and family, and never discuss problems. However, by not discussing the problems and getting defensive when they're mentioned, Beth has made matters worse for herself. She has never even allowed herself to grieve over the loss of her son, Buck.
Conrad visits Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch) because he wants to be more in control of his life. He's still having nightmares and guilt over the events of the past year. He's also having trouble finding the heart he needs to be an integral part of the swim team, and his mother seems uninterested in his problems. All she wants to do is go on vacation, and wants Conrad in tow, in spite of how missing sessions might affect him.
Yet, in spite of all the tension at home and in the pool, Conrad has found a positive creative outlet in the school choir. His singing has caught the attention of fellow choir member Jeannine Pratt (Elizabeth McGovern, in her film debut). They start talking about choir and other music, and they find out they like each other. Eventually, they decide to go on a date.
Still, Conrad has bottled up his bad feelings and hidden the fact that he has quit the swim team from his parents. Even Dr. Berger has to push Conrad's buttons to get him to vent any frustrations. Once he has vented with the doctor, Conrad applies his skill to family situations. When Calvin takes too long to get a photo with Conrad and Beth just right, Beth simply asks for the camera so she can shoot. Conrad becomes impatient, and drives that point home with an expletive. Everybody just stands in stunned silence, as though Conrad had left the room and been replaced by Richard Pryor. He also starts showing his anger about his mother's lack of attendance when he was in the hospital. He gets mad at his old teammates when they want him to be the same old jock he had been.
Redford fills every frame of Ordinary People with tension. Even when Conrad isn't feeling the tension of his family or school life, he's feeling the tension of opening up to Jeannine. The Jarretts talk, but never really speak. They all know they're in danger of losing what they have, but they're afraid of how they would appear to one another, as well as to their family and friends.
I also admire how Redford incorporated Johann Pachelbel's "Canon In D" into the film to punctuate the tension. Like Lake Forest, the "Canon In D" is idyllic. Yet, beneath the surface of beauty that is the music and the community is a sense of trouble that crescendos until everybody is saying is what's on their minds. For this movie, Redford won an Oscar as Best Director.
Hutton won a Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of Conrad, but his performance is anything but supporting. This is not to say his performance isn't excellent, but he has more onscreen time than anybody else here. Hutton has the look and the sound of a teen in trouble, and who desperately doesn't want to be troubled. We feel for him, and for all the pain that is so obvious in the Jarrett family.
Moore (who, along with Hirsch, also received acting nominations) proves that she do far more than play characters like Laura Petrie and Mary Richards. She has never fully come to grips with Buck's death, and conveys that sense of loss perfectly as she stands alone in Buck's room, unable to love as well those who are still living. Sutherland is wonderful playing the opposite of the cocky, self-assured characters he portrayed in films like M*A*S*H and Animal House. Calvin Jarrett is a tax attorney who sees his world crumbling, and feels helpless. He's a man who accedes to his wife's wishes, but needs to find the strength within himself to question and to argue. He is the most open of the Jarretts, but, unlike Conrad and Beth, is least vocal.
A number of supporting performances are worthy of note. Hirsch shows the smarts and compassion needed to play Dr. Berger, who makes Conrad look inside himself for answers. McGovern is sweet and caring as Jeannine. I enjoyed her in every scene she had with Hutton. M. Emmet Walsh is very convincing as a swim coach who can't figure out Conrad or the reason Conrad underwent shock treatment. Dinah Manoff (who went on to appear in TV's Empty Nest) has a great scene as Conrad's hospital friend who shows she has more in common with Conrad than a hospital stay. Adam Baldwin (who recently appeared as a Tory in The Patriot) has some nice moments as Stillman, a fellow swimmer who can't rise beyond his jock mentality to see the problems with his old friend. The characters of Judith Guest's novel come very much to life in Alvin Sargent's Oscar-winning screenplay.
After seeing Ordinary People for the first time, I started going to movies on a regular basis. Few weeks have gone by since then without my watching at least one film. While preparing my review of this film, I watched Ordinary People on tape twice in a row. It's still as moving as it first was to me. Ordinary People is not only a great film of the eighties, but one of the best of my filmgoing experience. The Jarretts may seem like ordinary people, but they take us on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery.
A suburban Chicago couple and their son are torn by another son's death. Oscars for best picture, director Robert Redford, supporting actor Hutton.More at HotMovieSale.com
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