Ordinary People 1980

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The film looks austere and serious, rather as if it had been shot inside a Frigidaire, and the oppressiveness of the images tends to strangle laughter, even at the most absurd excesses of Alvin Sargent's script. Read more

Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News: With the skill of a practiced surgeon, Redford gradually peels away the protective layers of his characters, exposing their flaws, their darkest fears and ultimately, their innermost feelings. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: A moving, intelligent and funny film about disasters that are commonplace to everyone except the people who experience them. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: What Redford accomplishes is to provide an excellent portrait of how well families can hide their inner turmoil from the prying eyes of outsiders. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: An intelligent, perceptive, and deeply moving film. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: An austere and delicate examination of the ways in which a likable family falters under pressure and struggles, with ambiguous results, to renew itself. Read more

Don Macpherson, Time Out: An actors' movie and an advert for therapy, extremely bitter, but handsomely directed in its elegant pretentiousness. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A powerfully intimate domestic drama. Read more

Gary Arnold, Washington Post: Despite the sponginess of the content, Hutton's extraordinary film acting debut ought to assure his famous novice director a long, successful career behind the camera. Read more