It does not want to shock you, provoke you, frighten you, intellectually stimulate you, or even teach you anything you do not already know.

| Aug 8, 2022

Putting it crudely, I don't think a first-time director should make such a display of his own sensitivity. What Redford reveals of the Jarretts just isn't surprising or complex enough to justify all this gravity.

| Jul 15, 2022

The movie is just as sanitized as the fantasy of upper-middle-class life it sets out to expose. And it’s just as empty and orderly.

| Jul 15, 2022

For his debut as a director, Robert Redford has made a film that sometimes falters in its pace and is a shade too calculated in its glossy irony. But Ordinary People is also a harrowingly accurate study of a family at war.

| Jul 15, 2022

It's a powerful beginning for a new director, and its sobriety and stern avoidance of sensationalism put it well beyond the range of the average family film.

| Jul 15, 2022

The upshot is engaging and serious-minded. It is a film which deserves attention not only for its message -- that love should dare speak to its name -- but also for its emotional nuances.

| Jul 15, 2022

It is an excellent first feature because of its care and refusal to indulge its audience with either sentiment or melodrama. And if it ultimately fails as a really first-class film, it is only because of a certain literalness of approach.

| Jul 15, 2022

It cares deeply enough about its subject to be more than a little earnest in pursuing it quietly, delicately, and from the inside out. From the first line of dialogue, it's an actor's film -- which is not to underrate the director but to compliment him.

| Jul 14, 2022

Ordinary People is dignified, short on stylistic razzle-dazzle and absolutely believable, but a tear-jerker just the same.

| Jul 13, 2022

This is hardly revolutionary material, but Ordinary People is so well-acted and so crisply directed by first-timer Redford, who does not appear in the film, that we can't help but appreciate this valuable lesson one more time.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 13, 2022

This is soul opera, though, not a soap. The dialogue and Redford's sure-handed grip on scenes makes it seem as if a richly drawn novel, with all of its characters and events intact, has suddenly sprung to life.

| Jul 13, 2022

The only thing wrong with Ordinary People is its title, which tells us nothing about a picture that is truly outstanding. It is an acting piece and a directorial achievement almost without peer.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 13, 2022

Ordinary People is sensitively, imaginatively directed (by Robert Redford in his debut behind the camera) and it is superbly acted by a strong cast.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 13, 2022

It is a fine and touching piece of work for any season; in 1980, it is rain after drought.

| Jul 13, 2022

[Ordinary People] is extraordinary entertainment, a sensitive, artfully-made exploration of love and loss. It’s a memorable first film for neophyte director Robert Redford, who leaves the acting to an impeccable ensemble.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 12, 2022

No doubt Redford and company thought they were making a liberal humanistic statement, and that's why the film's misogynous blind spot is so unsettling. But this weakness exposes the simplistic nature of the entire film.

| Jul 12, 2022

It's a rare bird among films because it is strong and sensitive and visual and filled with extraordinary human values that are foreign to most air-conditioned studio packages. We should all hail Robert Redford for making it.

| Jul 12, 2022

It is not a movie we can forget. It is not a movie we should forget.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 12, 2022

[Robert Redford] has found a way to fashion some remarkably fine scenes with characters whose inhibitions and upbringing demand that the rhythm of family life should never be disturbed by the making of scenes.

| Jul 12, 2022

It will hit home in many ways, and it may hurt. It will probably bring tears. And afterward, it will cause thought and reflection, and the realization that one has been exposed to a superior motion picture.

| Jul 12, 2022