Ordinary People (1980)

Robert Redford's directorial debut Ordinary People is about a family in Illinois. The surviving son has recently returned home from a psychiatric institution after attempting to kill himself. The other son has died several years ago in a boating accident. The son sees a psychiatrist. Over the course of the movie the son begins to adjust to life and one of his friends eventually kills herself. Overall, not a whole lot happens but it's still fairly interesting.

This film won 4 Oscars including best picture. Redford won for best director. Timothy Hutton won an Oscar for best supporting actor. While he was certainly deserving of an Oscar for one of the best performances by an under-21-year-old actor I have ever seen, I cannot understand how he was considered the supporting actor given that he was the main character in the movie and had more screen time than anyone. Had he been nominated for best actor, he probably would have lost to the better-known Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull and this probably explains the nomination. He remains the youngest actor to ever win best supporting actor (he was 20).

90/100
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