this wretched psychodrama use every shabby device in the book to wheedle attention and sympathy from u for it character and who and with one exception and be not worthy of any notice at all and let alone two precious hour of filmgoers time . a in robert redford ordinary people ( a superb film that and in comparison and clearly show up the vacuity of hero ) and a late teenage boy have die and leave his family in the throe of bereavement . in this case and the death be a suicide and an event that nearly always poison the emotional well of the survivor in a particularly corrosive way . we follow these people over the next 8 or 9 month . the father ( jeff daniel ) become a withdrawn and virtually mute and usually drunken stiff who secretly take leave from his job for month and sits instead on a park bench all day and and insists on set a full plate of food at the deceased son place for every meal . he treat everyone else in the family with unerring nastiness . he see his doctor regularly but the issue of therapeutic intervention in his obviously dysfunctional state never come up . the mother ( sigourney weaver ) yell at the neighbor woman and among others and get bust when she stupidly try to buy marijuana ( her term ) at a head shop ( what adult in reality would ever try such a dumb stunt . ) and and and near the end and swoon into coma with a lung condition that everyone in the theater assume be cancer ( she a heavy smoker ) . ms. weaver have a few flip line but generally behave too unintelligently to merit much empathy . it not that there aren not people out there who behave in these silly way when severely stressful circumstance arise . but why make a film of such drivel . what can anyone learn from this pair conduct . the deceased old sister ( michelle williams ) be away at college and all too happy to distance herself from the family zoo . the young brother ( play by emile hirsch ) be the only credible member of the family . his suffering be genuine and it cause multifold and and his conduct be coherent within the circumstance . but hirsch character be too soft spoken and too morose and beat down and to carry the movie . the other bit player and subtexts and cutesy and unreal dialogue do not help . the suicide theme be echo in an almost nonchalant manner in the case of two other minor character . so what be the writer director and dan harris and try to say about this subject . that it isn not a serious matter . why jeff daniel agree to play the sap of a father a write in this screenplay be something only his therapist might possibly be able to answer . avoid this dog . instead rent redford classic . my rating represent 4/10 ( c ) . ( see on 2/17/05 ) . if you would like to read more of my review and send me a message for direction to my website .