Robert Benton's film of single parenting, divorce, and custody battles has so much potential to become a mawkish TV Movie of the Week drama, but manages to resist the urge at every turn. Instead he has made a film that is as intelligent as it is moving and is worthy of a place on the big screen. Dustin Hoffman plays Ted Kramer a successful advertising executive who is abandoned by his wife (Streep) and is forced to look after his young son by himself. This may sound like a tedious enough scenario, but we are saved from the traumas of soap operatic drivel by Benton's sharp direction and superlative acting from the entire cast. As with so many of his performances in the seventies, Hoffman is entirely convincing and totally without flaw. He successfully portrays the character of a man who is committed to his working duties yet that has to consistently struggle in order to give his son the kind of domestic life necessary. Meryl Streep performs a similarly laudable turn as his neglected wife who walks out of the home in order to rebuild her shattered confidence.
The film devotes the first hour to the depiction of Hoffman's efforts to build a better home for his son in the light of his wife's absence, and Benton's shrewd direction in this regard results in a film that is both entertaining and emotionally challenging. Hoffman bravely comes to terms with the challenges of single parenting and learns that there is more to life than making a lot of money. Justin Henry in the role of seven-year-old Billy Kramer delivers a towering performance as a child who is caught between two battling parents, and disproves the theory that child actors are both annoying and precocious. As the film progresses towards its conclusion the two warring partners take their case to court in order to decide on the custody of their child, and rather than presenting the courtroom showdown as a showpiece of crying, screaming and accusations, Benton instead delivers an intelligent commentary on the nature of responsible parenting.
For a film that tackles the plethora of domestic issues which it does, Kramer Vs Kramer manages at all times to be a compelling movie which never trivialises the topics it is dealing with, nor does it ever allow itself to take a convenient moral stance regarding the conflicting parents. Instead it presents a credible, moving story of a father and son trying to build and maintain a successful relationship, while at the same time presenting the story of a mother vying for the love of her son yet trying to create a life of her own in the process. An intelligent script couple with top rate performances and sharp direction make this movie the finest in its class and remains one of the quintessential characterisations of America's divorce ridden culture. Sadly, the same could not be said for the countless spin-offs it inspired.
The film devotes the first hour to the depiction of Hoffman's efforts to build a better home for his son in the light of his wife's absence, and Benton's shrewd direction in this regard results in a film that is both entertaining and emotionally challenging. Hoffman bravely comes to terms with the challenges of single parenting and learns that there is more to life than making a lot of money. Justin Henry in the role of seven-year-old Billy Kramer delivers a towering performance as a child who is caught between two battling parents, and disproves the theory that child actors are both annoying and precocious. As the film progresses towards its conclusion the two warring partners take their case to court in order to decide on the custody of their child, and rather than presenting the courtroom showdown as a showpiece of crying, screaming and accusations, Benton instead delivers an intelligent commentary on the nature of responsible parenting.
For a film that tackles the plethora of domestic issues which it does, Kramer Vs Kramer manages at all times to be a compelling movie which never trivialises the topics it is dealing with, nor does it ever allow itself to take a convenient moral stance regarding the conflicting parents. Instead it presents a credible, moving story of a father and son trying to build and maintain a successful relationship, while at the same time presenting the story of a mother vying for the love of her son yet trying to create a life of her own in the process. An intelligent script couple with top rate performances and sharp direction make this movie the finest in its class and remains one of the quintessential characterisations of America's divorce ridden culture. Sadly, the same could not be said for the countless spin-offs it inspired.