Passing Judgment

I recently crossed a Best Picture winning movie off my list when I sat down and watched Kramer vs. Kramer. I wasn't too sure if I was going to like it, as so much of the praise for the movie seems to surround the fact that it was dealing with the subject of divorce -- a subject that an audience today has had three decades to become more jaded about. (And oh, we sure have.)

I was thus pleasantly surprised when I enjoyed the movie a great deal. It's less about divorce than it is about a workaholic father learning how to truly be a parent to his young son. Indeed, the custody battle of the film's title only comes about in the film's final act, after we've watched a really engaging hour-plus journey of a man changing himself and his life to do right by his kid.

It all works thanks to some powerful acting. Dustin Hoffman plays the father in one of his most honest and simple performances (though it's just one jewel in a stellar career). And Justin Henry is an incredibly natural child actor that has perfect chemistry with him. It's easy to believe they're father and son, and their interactions are authentic at every stage of their growing relationship.

Meryl Streep plays what amounts to a minor role in the film, and she is also strong -- as you'd expect. But, through no fault of her own I think, she's also the weak element of the movie. She plays the mother who simply snaps in the opening of the film and walks out on her husband and child with no real explanation. When she finally re-enters the movie near its end, the script never really puts any believable motivation to her behavior.

Perhaps the movie intentionally wants the audience to sympathize with the father, but I personally would have like a more even-handed presentation. You can tell from the conviction of Streep's acting that she painted in the necessary justification to understand her character; the script just doesn't do that for us. And while it can sometimes be an interesting choice for a film to leave elements for the audience to fill in, here I think it plays false. The rest of the film finds drama in being honest, but the mother is made out to be too much of a "villain," in my view.

Still, it's a minor quibble with a very good film that still holds up today. I rate it a B+.