Kramer vs Kramer Details

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moving tale

A career oriented man tries and becomes involved in the upbringing of his son without his wife who walked out.

She, who searched for a meaning in life away from domesticity, realises that she cant be away from her son and fights it out in the court with her ex-husband.

The court decides in favour of the mother.

The child had to suffer the seperation from his mother first and now the threat of the same with his father looms large.

Subdued acting and silent pauses which are pregnant with meaning.

You simply become a part of the proceedings.

26 years now, this film has not become redundant.

The way in which the lawyers twist the tale to benefit their profession, insensitive to the estranged couple's private affairs, is brought out well in the court room drama.

While she refers him as ex-husband, for him she is still his wife.

The scene in which Dustin Hoffman gets his new job amidst the hustle bustle of Christmas was well executed.

The climax is poignant

Realism with the sound turned down

Unlike many Method-trained actors, Dustin Hoffman does not show it off. The quiet, complicated truthfulness with which he portrayed Ted Kramer (the career-high art director forced to bring up his son Billy alone when his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) walks out) is very rare. His performance does not indulge in over-sympathetic sentimentality, and is the more moving for it. Custody battles are heart-breaking because, although the couple are no longer husband and wife, in the eyes of their child they are still, and will always be, mum and dad - the very bond the court is employed to break. Kramer vs Kramer acknowledges this - that life is more complicated than our bureaucratic systems would like to make it. Great film.