Ordinary People

During the weekend I have seen a wonderful 1980 English film called "Ordinary People" directed by Robert Redford. The film portraits the unordinary incidents happening in an affluent upper-middle class family in suburbia after the accidental death of the older son. The film mainly revolves around the younger son Conrad (brilliantly played by Timothy Hutton) who is guilt ridden after his elder brother's death and had tried an earnest but failed suicide attempt. All these incidents disturbs the emotional relationships among him, his well-natured father (played by Donald Sutherland) and bitter mother (played by Mary Tylor Moore). Hutton begins seeing a psychiatrist, who ultimately leads Hutton to realize some important things about his inner feelings. The scenes between the psychiatrist and Hutton are very interesting. The film subseqently shows how Conrad and his parents comes to terms with what has happened to them in the past and find what road they have to take.

Ordinary People had won Oscars for best picture, best director, best supporting actor (Timothy Hutton) and best screenplay. I think the 1999 film American Beauty have some shades from Ordinary People in showing the emotional relationships within members in an upper-middle class family.