Review of Ordinary People (1980) by Liesa W — 12 Aug 2009

For the first half, let's be honest, they were ordinary people. But then the concept of love started to kick in a little bit more. Karen shows up and the idea of friendship arises. Jeannine shows up and there is a genuine love interest.

And at this point the whole family thing has been established. Whenever Moore and Sutherland, bless their hearts, were on screen I was bored. Unless Hutton was there or Hirsch, because they were absolutely amazingly fantastic.

Anytime they were on screen the film was great. Moore and Sutherland, snooze fest. Not that they gave bad performances, I just thought their characters sucked. The film itself had many great moments to hang its hat on.

The diner scene with Karen for instance, and anything with Jeannine in it. The second half of the film really soared to be honest. The emotions came out and they were no longer ordinary people. Much like Good Will Hunting, a film I love, the psychiatrist scenes really worked for me, and Hirsch plays the role well.

I did think that it ended about 15 minutes later than it should have. I thought a good ending would have been when Jeannine and Conrad go inside to eat breakfast, but much like the rest of the film, Redford inserts Moore and Sutherland again and it got boring again.

The very last scene was good/emotional, but I still think it should have ended earlier. One great thing about the film was the use of the flashback. The way they edited them into the scenes as quick shots back and as thoughts of the characters was really effective and to be applauded.

Too hit and miss and too sluggish in the beginning to get my "great score" but I'll give it the next best thing.