Kramer vs. Kramer ***** (1979, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander) – Classic Movie Review 2065

Writer-director Robert Benton hones this four-hankie, five-Oscar-winning tearjerker tale of a tug-of-love between workaholic advertising executive Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) and ex-wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) over their seven-year-old son Billy (Justin Henry) into highly polished 1979 movie.  This issues it raises perfectly capture the zeitgeist of the time.

Ted arrives home to shares the good news of an important new ad account with Joanna, only to find that she is leaving him to find herself, expecting Ted to raise Billy alone. Ted and Billy initially resent one another but learn to cope and gradually bond. Both thoughtful and credible, Kramer vs. Kramer is a rollercoaster of the emotions as it follows a married couple’s divorce and its impact on everyone involved.

[Spoiler alert] In an essential but not-too-surprising development, Joanna reappears and of course wants Billy back. But Ted now refuses to give the kid up, and they go to court to battle for custody of their son. Well, it’s not really as spoiler as the title cheerfully gives away the plotline.

Benton wrote the touching screenplay from a novel by Avery Corman, and, as sympathetic director, he elicits ideal, exquisitely acted performances from the whole cast, with Hoffman outstanding in an emotional tour-de-force, winning his first Best Actor Oscar, and Henry very appealing as the kid.

Admittedly the script demonises and peripheralises the mother, though it does try to give some weight and importance to Joanna’s point of view. But we don’t see how the couple’s marriage split up, and this slant on divorce does have the unusual benefit (at least in 1979) of making the man into the caring parent. This gives Streep an uphill struggle in the movie to stay involving or sympathetic, but her strong work was also rewarded with an Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress. It’s the first of her three Oscars so far. In star support, Jane Alexander plays Ted’s neighbour Margaret.

It was an enormous popular success at the box office, crowned by sweeping the board on Oscar night. It picked five Academy Awards in 1980 for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. It cost only $8million and earned more than $106million.

Also in the cast are Howard Duff, George Coe, JoBeth Williams, Bill Moor, Howland Chamberlain (as Judge Atkins), Jack Ramage, Jess Osuna, Nicholas Hormann, Ellen Perker, Shelby Brammer, Carol Nadell, Donald Gantry, Kathleen Keller, Melissa Morell, Petra King and Judith Calder.

Kate Jackson was offered Streep’s role but had to turn it down because of her TV show Charlie’s Angels. Streep was cast as Ted’s one-night stand Phyllis, which went to JoBeth Williams when Streep was cast as Joanna. François Truffaut was asked to direct and his cinematographer Néstor Almendros was hired. Truffaut had to turn it down but suggested that screenwriter Benton should direct it himself.

Justin Henry was discovered by his casting director neighbour and chosen at the age of seven, without any acting experience. He was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, becoming the youngest person ever nominated for an Oscar. The producers picked him because he looked more like Streep than the other remaining possible kid. He earned only $5000 for the role. He retired from films to attend Skidmore College, earning a BA in Psychology in 1993, then returned to films in the mid-90s.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2065

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