MovieChat Forums > Ordinary People (1980) Discussion > Final reveal is horribly played!

Final reveal is horribly played!

posted 8 years ago by ScaryMary123
5 replies | jump to latest

I love Ordinary People and think it has many fine aspects, but something has always bothered me--the final reveal where Conrad comes to realize the source of his troubles strikes me as just terribly played. Timothy Hutton is a good actor, but he just cannot pull off that climactic moment. His crying jags are false, there are no tears, and the dialogue is just awful. I blame the director, who should've added more realism to the scene, since it was what the entire movie hung on. When Conrad says, "yeah? Well, screw you, jerk!" I want to laugh. It sounds so, I dunno--false. Like a Lifetime movie. I expected more.

[–] pbfan103 8 years ago

And yet he won a Oscar

[–] Rolltide (964) 4 years ago

I could never understand how he was nominated for a supporting role. He was the leading character in that film. The film was about Conrad primarily.

[–] renatom1 8 years ago

You expected more. Sometimes less is more.

[–] Owlwise (1535) 4 years ago

This is it exactly. The film is so emotionally powerful because it doesn't succumb to facile, crowd-pleasing overplaying. It trusts the viewers to have enough depth & sensitivity to read & empathize with its characters, without forcing those characters to call obvious, self-aware attention to each dramatic moment.

[–] marecek (122) 6 years ago

Yeah, well that's just, like, your opinion, man.