Review of Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) by Evalena I — 07 Sep 2009

Caught this movie on the free HD Movie channel this weekend. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid and my wife had never seen it. I remember being profoundly affected by this film as a child, and having it shape my idea of what divorce was. My parents never divorced, and growing up I had a group of friends that was largely lucky enough to have never had to face the situations painted in Kramer vs. Kramer. My wife's parents did divorce when she was very young, however, so I was anxious to see how the film would play for her.

She seemed to be pretty emotionally affected by the film. She said afterward that it was interesting for her to see this divorce story go through so many emotional steps that she had lived through, but from the parents' point of view. And she said she greatly appreciated that the film didn't really take sides or succumb to the melodrama.

And that was something I saw a lot more this time around. When I was a kid, I think I saw things from the perspective of the kid, and I think that naturally disposed me to be more on the fathers' side simply because the kids spends the majority of the movie in the father's care. This time around, I really saw the substance in Meryl Streep's part which allows for a great deal of empathy at the same time as neuroses. It is truly a performance worthy of the Oscar it received.

Of course Dustin Hoffman's performance is every bit as nuanced as well, and he takes the most mundane scenes between himself and Justin Henry and pull out a great deal of dramatic dynamism, often without even saying a word of dialogue. There is a series of 3 breakfast scenes in the film which chart the relationship between Hoffman's character and his son according to how they make breakfast together. Two out of these three scenes don't contain a single word of dialogue, and yet these are two of the most moving scenes in the film.

Robert Benton's writing and direction are the other two Oscar winning aspects of the film (aside from the Best Picture award, of course), and again, the Oscars are well deserved. Benton's consistency of tone and at times frustratingly slow real-time direction force you as a viewer to accept a lot of the more painful, difficult truths of how hard single parenting is.

This is a brilliant film that's so emotionally true to the situation without being judgemental toward any of its characters that aside from some clothing styles being out of date, the movie ages extremely well. It has maintained emotional weight and relevance and its performances are as moving today as when they won the Oscars.

I will say that there is one problem with the tendency of the movie not to villify Meryl Streep's character. It makes it very difficult for the film to have a happy ending. The ending as it is seems a bit arbitrary. The characters and their troubles would undoubtedly continue after the closing events of the film, but it does play almost like it's supposed to be a happy ending. That's really the only misstep that I can think of, though. In general the film is practically flawless.