Final reveal is horribly played!

I love Ordinary People and think it has many fine aspects, but something has always bothered me--the final reveal where Conrad comes to realize the source of his troubles strikes me as just terribly played. Timothy Hutton is a good actor, but he just cannot pull off that climactic moment. His crying jags are false, there are no tears, and the dialogue is just awful. I blame the director, who should've added more realism to the scene, since it was what the entire movie hung on. When Conrad says, "yeah? Well, screw you, jerk!" I want to laugh. It sounds so, I dunno--false. Like a Lifetime movie. I expected more.