Ordinary People

Ordinary People (1980) is Robert Redford's directing debut, a quiet family drama you can watch online on iFILM. Behind a comfortable suburban house, one accident has quietly pulled a household apart.

Conrad (Timothy Hutton) is home from the hospital after a suicide attempt. His older brother drowned in a boating accident; Conrad lived, and the guilt of that is what he can't put down. His father Calvin (Donald Sutherland) keeps reaching for him, gentle and out of his depth. His mother Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) keeps the surface immaculate and flinches whenever real feeling shows. The thaw, when it comes, starts in a psychiatrist's office, where Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch) coaxes the boy into saying the things he hides from himself.

There's almost no plot in the usual sense — the drama lives in the silences and the things this family won't say to each other. Mary Tyler Moore, a sitcom sweetheart, plays against type as a tightly wound, frozen mother, and it stings more than any shouting match could. The film took four Oscars, including Best Picture and a directing prize for Redford, with Hutton honored for his first screen role. A grown-up, unhurried look at grief that nobody in the room will name. Stream Ordinary People (1980) online on iFILM.