I'm a bit surprised at how successful this movie was at the Oscars. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Writing, plus two more nominations? It's a far cry from my experience, as I never found myself particularly invested in the story or characters. Sure, the acting and writing have strong moments, and it explores interesting family dynamics that take the story in some unexpected directions, but the big emotional beats were too hit and miss in terms of feeling authentic vs melodramatic. I'm probably biased by modern mental health discourse, but some of the big ideas just felt superficial by today's standards.

This film is probably best known as being the movie that won the Best Picture Oscar over Raging Bull. To be honest I always thought that latter was a little bit overrated because the first half was so much better than the second half but that's still a tall hurdle to overcome . I thought that the first half of the film was just ok as it seemed kind of deliberate. But as the second half of the film played out it became clear as to why the methodical pacing of the first half was necessary. The last twenty minutes of the film are absolutely fantastic and I found the resolutions to be very interesting. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of the idea that not only can we be prisoners of certain events, we can be prisoners of our interpretation or recollection of those events. It's a really fascinating concept.

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An ok film that has some good acting. I really didn't connect with it that much. Robert Redford doesn't a decent job directing but nothing flashy or noteworthy. Raging Bull should of won best picture and director.

Amazing performances all round but Donald Sutherland broke my heart.

If you thought "Manchester by the Sea" left you feeling physically broken, then wait until you see this.

I mean, holy shit was this life draining in the most effective way. An impressive directing standpoint for Robert Redford himself. The performances all around were all just brilliant. Half of the time it didn't feel like acting. Especially from Mary Tyler Moore and Judd Hirsch which to me was they strongest performance.

But Timothy Hutton and Donald Sutherland were the ones that got to me the most. This is some of the greatest acting I've ever seen from any other actors. I didn't feel overly dramatic, but real. The boiling rage, guilt, and sadness were all shown without any line spoken.

The only issue I have is not with the movie itself, just with the year it was release. While I liked the movie overall, but better than "Raging Bull"? I don't think so. I'm not down grading the movie because of that, it's just something that bugged me. Just a saying really.

Still a good movie and you should check it out if your haven't already. Be prepared for it.