Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. Kramer vs Kramer is the fifty-second film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. Kramer vs Kramer tells the story of Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) and the fallout from the destruction of his marriage. Ted is a hot shot ad executive on the rise first, a husband to Joanna (Meryl Streep) and a father Billy (Justin Henry) second. His career is about to explode as he’s been given the lead on a big new client, but it turns out his marriage is about to blow up as well. Joanna is fed up with being a housewife and the small conception of her personhood that comes with it. After eight years she’s at the end of her rope. So she leaves. She packs a bag, heads to California and leaves behind Ted and Billy. Suddenly Ted is thrown into a juggling act trying to maintain his trajectory at work while acting as both mother and father for Billy. It’s a tough adjustment at first, with Ted completely unequipped for the domestic duties he had relied so heavily on Joanna for. Over time though, Ted shifts more of his attention from work toward his son and their bond blossoms. When his career suffers, Ted takes a pay cut to make sure he can be with his son. After over a year away, Joanna resurfaces, claiming that she has bettered herself in California and now would like to take custody of her son back. Ted won’t let him go without a fight. Domestic drama and divorce are not uncommon subjects in prestige films and even in the late seventies the subject was being depicted more and more. What elevates Kramer vs Kramer to a special level is the empathy it has for all of the people involved. From script to performance, there are few clear villains in the story beyond the procedural nastiness of family court. Hoffman is particularly tremendous in the lead role. His Ted is always walking a tightrope over a deep chasm. He wears the fatigue and worry of all that just below the surface, rarely letting it break through to his son. Never is the goal to portray Ted as a perfect father — he occasionally loses his temper and shows up late for pickups — but rather one that is trying his absolute best with a tough hand. Crucially he also protects Billy from any resentments towards his mother. Joanna, on the other hand, begins as the party at fault to some degree. Ted is a workaholic, but Joanna leaves her child. She makes no effort to take Billy with her, barely writes and never calls all while we see Ted making massive changes to keep things as normal as possible for their son. But Robert Benton’s film — and especially Streep’s performance — refuses to let her be that simple of a foil. When Joanna returns she is a different person. Streep wears the hurt of being apart from Billy all over her face. Joanna did need to heal herself to be a good mother and by the end of the film we see how much she really does care. So much of the filmmaking builds into empathy and in doing so constructs a withering critique of gender roles and family law. Being a studio film from the seventies much of this comes from the perspective of the father, but it’s powerful nonetheless. The relationship Ted has with his boss makes clear that his ascent at work has as much to do with social outings and after-hours drinks as it does with any work he’s doing. Men sacrificing family time for their careers is taken as a given and postponing a meeting for a PTA meeting is a fatal sin. Ted is a good father, he just never had to try to be one before. With Joanna too, she is expected to give up a career for family and never felt empowered enough to protest the arrangement. She’s a mother but she’s also a person. When she fights for custody we can see exactly how fighting for herself gave her the strength to fight for her son. But family court is one of the few places where women are given an upper hand. Even having abandoned her son for a year and a half, she enters with the benefit of the doubt. For all its smart commentary, the very heart of Kramer vs Kramer is the relationship between Ted and Billy. The bond they build up over the first half of the film is full of laughs and tear jerking moments. For all the talk about the Oscar winning performances of the two portraying his parents, Justin Henry is a delight as Billy. The devastation of potentially splitting apart father and son is enough to hold the whole film together. Kramer vs Kramer may not have the same enormous scope or production design of some of its contemporary Best Picture winners, but it digs deeper into its characters than just about any other film you can imagine. Steadfastly refusing to paint generalized portraits of good and bad people, Benton finds empathy in both Ted and Joanna as they navigate the oppression of expectations. 9/10
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