A critically acclaimed blockbuster in its time, Ordinary People won four Oscars, including best film and best director for Robert Redford, stepping behind the camera for the first time. There is one truly great performance from Mary Tyler Moore as the thin, elegant, golfing and social-mixing mother strung tighter than a piano wire, and she is ably assisted by Donald Sutherland and Timothy Hutton, who won a best supporting actor Oscar. Even though there is something very pat about Redford's exposition of the seemingly cosy middle-class family simmering with unconscious angst after the death of a son, and the movie has appeared more banal and obvious with the passage of time, this is still an auspicious directorial debut that stands as one of the first films to deal intelligently with the role of therapy.

Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.