Rating: 3/5
Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024 | 43/52 | Title formatted as X vs. X
Joanna Kramer tells her seven-year-old son Billy that she loves him, running her hands through his hair as he falls asleep. She grabs a bag from the closet and packs some of her clothes. She sits on the couch and smokes until Ted gets home.
Ted Kramer sits with his boss, Jim. Ted realizes how late it is and tries to get home, but John offers him a promotion, putting him in charge of the Mid-Atlantic account. So, the two walk down the street a while longer before he finally makes it home. There, he ignores Joanna and makes some business calls. Joanna tells him that she’s leaving him. He’s annoyed that she picked now and tries to stop her. He wrangles her bag out of her hand, but she takes the elevator and leaves.
The film follows Ted and Billy as they adapt to this new life. Will Ted be able to show up as a father and continue his all-hours job? Will Joanna find happiness after six years of an unhappy marriage?
With a title like Kramer vs. Kramer, you think you would get both sides of this divorce. But no, Streep spends most of her time offscreen while Hoffman rants about his bitch wife, women’s lib, and so on until he realizes he likes his kid and wants to be different.
Dustin Hoffman went method, which I guess means he had to hit, groupe, and taunt Meryl Streep, reminding her of her recently deceased fiancé, John Cazale, to “draw a better performance out of her.” Streep wanted to rewrite her character to make her more sympathetic—though she couldn’t make headway on the script, she succeeded through her performance. I understand every choice she makes, except for the last one.
The script is what shines here. I love how it captures Ted’s changing priorities in small bits—walking at night hearing his boss’s stories vs. walking during the day hearing his son’s stories, then telling his boss stories about Billy.
My eyes glazed over during the court scenes. Also, the ending is total nonsense. Still, as a child of divorce, I think this movie got enough of it right that I appreciated what the movie did.