Posts Tagged ‘Ordinary People’

Oak Park Arms presents its popular series “You Be the Critic” at 3:30 p.m. Friday, April 12, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave. The 1980 film “Ordinary People” will be viewed and reviewed with radio announcer Dan Kane.

Robert Redford’s directorial debut stars Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton. Moore, Sutherland and Hutton depict an upper-middle class family in Lake Forest, IL. Hirsch plays a therapist.

When the older son of this affluent family dies, relationships between the bitter mother, Beth (Moore), good-natured father, Calvin (Sutherland) and guilt-ridden remaining son Conrad (Hutton) are strained. So much so, that Conrad attempts suicide shortly after his brother’s passing. Upon his return from a temporary stay in a psychiatric ward, the family tries to pick up the pieces and restore a sense of normalcy in their home.

Beth seems to have always preferred her dead son over Conrad, and Conrad’s suicide only drives her further away. This leaves Calvin stuck in the middle trying to reconnect with his son while holding everything else together.

Tensions continue to rise until a final outburst in which Calvin questions Beth’s ability to truly love anyone causes her to abandon her family. Calvin and Conrad are left in the wreckage to deal with what has become their new family situation.

A critical and commercial success, Ordinary People won four Oscars including an Academy Award for Best Picture. Roger Ebert gave it four stars, and it grossed $54 million at theaters and $23 million in rentals. In addition, many of the cast members received awards and recognition for their respective roles in the film.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.