I’ve grown suspicious of Oscar winners over the years. If the level of expectation isn’t set too high, the sheer grandeur of the movie just doesn’t come across. Awarded for best picture, actor in a supporting role, director and writing in the 1981 Academy Awards, Ordinary People is luckily an exception to the rule.

It’s a story about a family torn apart by the accidental death of the older one of the two brothers, followed by the other boy’s attempted suicide. Since then the family is pretending to have move on, but the rooms are full of elephants and unspoken issues that are never addressed in order to avoid shattering what little there is left of the unit. It’s only after Conrad – played to perfection by the young Timothy Hutton – comes to accept the fact that her mother doesn’t love him anymore that the scars are finally torn open and ready to heal.

Starting slow and small, Ordinary People grows to be one of the most mesmerising and heartbreaking stories I’ve seen in a while, and one of those rare movies that make one feel like giving a standing ovation as the end credits start rolling.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 96%