Ordinary People Movie Review

Ordinary People, the Movie

Ordinary People is based on a upper class family in 1980 that lived in a suburb of Chicago that was considered wealthy. Ordinary People is a drama where a family deals with the accidental death of the oldest son, their younger son attempts suicide. The death of their son disrupts the family, as the father Calvin and wife Beth are trying to keep their home or family together after son Conrad attempts suicide, because he is struggling with the death of his brother. The story begins with Beth the mother who is very withdrawn, and in denial about their being any kind of problem with Conrad, and at times show anger towards him. Conrad has just come home from a stay at a hospital, after slitting his wrist in…show more content…
Guilt, that he survived the accident and his brother did not. His guilt stems from the fact that he was there and his brother died and he could not save him. Conrad blamed himself and felt that he should be dead too, possibly asking why God took brother and not him. Conrad in dealing with his guilt or not, attempts suicide by slitting of his wrist. Guilt can cause a lot of emotional issues with an individual as I know personally first hand. Conrad also was dealing the fact that his mother was not being the motherly type toward him, and showed very little feeling toward him. Conrad did not feel that his mother gave him the balance and direction a teenage child needs to keep the moving in a positive manner or directions in their life. Beth, his mother was in a state of denial or separation attitude and chose not to express her feeling of love and emotion toward him. I can personally understand what Conrad is going through because those are emotions I dealt with in my life with my father. One feels, angry, rejected and isolated from the family as a whole. (“Black sheep of the family”) This caused a great deal of resentment toward his mother Beth and in my case my dad. A sense of frustration toward your parent happens, which causes you to react emotionally in different manners, either by sadness, withdrawing, or defiant type behaviors acting out and going against what you know to…show more content…
It deals with the normal everyday or average family, and the problems that are faced in the “real” world. In the average family dealing with the tragic death of a child, one might seek therapeutic counseling to help them deal and approach life on a day to day basis. As much as one might not want to think about it, what Calvin, Beth, and Conrad suffered is life. Conrad in the movie though is pulled by his father to deal with life-issues, where Beth his mother opens the closet door puts the past in there and pretends it never existed. For that reason Beth is in denial that there truly is a problem to be faced by her and the family as a whole. In a family setting like that therapy sessions between a counselor and a patient, or patients should transpire. By Conrad’s willingness to seek such counseling resulted and a father son relationship that strengthened. They were both able to express their feelings in a positive manner, toward building a positive outlook on life. Calvin and his son Conrad find is hard or next to impossible to communicate with Beth. If Beth had agreed to seek professional help by a third-party, which in the movie she had no intentions would have helped her in many ways. Beth was very unwilling to share her feelings with anyone. For this reason Beth found it very hard to open up to anyone in comfort, which is caused by her denial and suppression. To conclude, it is