Kramer vs. Kramer Reviews

(DVD) In retrospective, seems an early pos feminist film. Streep is a woman looking for her life after suffering patriarchal Hoffman, abandons her child twice, but gets a life while Hoffman becomes an excellet loving father housewife. Good acting an directing...

I already saw this movie but it was a while back so I was really eager to check it again. At the time, when this movie was released, divorces were not something new but there were not as widespread as nowadays (apparently, in most western countries, more than half of the marriages end up in a divorce which is pretty huge). Even so, I don't think this movie has lost any of its impact in the meantime. Indeed, it is quite a strong drama and the fact that I'm older, married with kids (in fact, I'm even going through with 1st divorce right now), resulted that I was even more able to connect with this story. Of course, the way it was developed (the father struggles at first, even loses his job, but eventually, he turns out to be a pretty good single-parent) was rather predictable but it still worked fine because the characters and their emotions were really believable and the actors involved delivered a terrific job. At the time, Dustin Hoffman was pretty much at the top of his game and even though Meryl Streep was just at the beginning of her career, she was already one of the best actresses around and even managed to win her first Academy award in the process. Anyway, to conclude, I think this movie really deserves it stellar reputation and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

This is a beautifully heartwarming, depressing story that teaches a lot of very valuable lessons in life. It is beautiful because it shows a persons love to another which is what we see from Ted Kramer to his young son. It shows how beautiful family really is. It tells a beautiful relationship between a parent and their child. In this case, it is best to teach a father's relationship with his son. If anybody is going through what Ted Kramer goes through in this film, then it is certainly recommendable to watch this masterpiece. I was blown away this film's heartbreak as well as the beauty. It proves that not all mothers are good and that there are some men who are brilliant parents and do the best they can with their children. It shows a way a man can have full custody of his son/daughter instead of the child's mother who either walked out, ended up in prison or in a mental institution or just simply died. It is a family film about family, love and relationships.


Dustin Hoffman's performance as Ted Kramer is absolutely fantastic. He is the only actor who would have been good enough for Ted. I think Dustin has always had a talent for playing either friendly, innocent or rather sweet characters which is why Rain Man, Kramer Vs. Kramer and The Graduate are his best performances. It is an absolutely beautiful performance that is so realistic it is almost tearjerking. His two Oscar wins in Rain Man and Kramer Vs. Kramer are both quite similar because of the innocent and friendly personalities within the characters. Meryl Streep provides the best performance of her career in my opinion. When I was seeing her portray Joanne Kramer, I could see right through her heartbreak and emotion like it was Meryl Streep battling for her child not Joanne Kramer. I don't think there was one moment where Meryl Streep didn't cry in the courtroom. Justin Henry's performance was absolutely phenomenal as the young son Billy of Ted and Joanne Kramer. It is one of the best child performances ever. Henry is now a mid 30s man.


Robert Benton is the literally perfect director for this masterpiece. He directed this one like no other director could have done so. I think that this is mixed between being great for both adults and kids. The script was absolutely fantastic. It was beautifully written that is a very deep outlook on real life which is probably the main thing that makes it realistic.


Meryl Streep's two Oscar wins (Kramer Vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice) are her two best performances just as Dustin Hoffman's are too (Kramer Vs. Kramer and Rain Man). A lot of people say that Kramer Vs. Kramer was lucky to win Best Picture over Apocalypse Now but I think that Kramer Vs. Kramer totally deserved it even though Apocalypse Now is still a masterpiece. Kramer Vs. Kramer is the heartwarming film of the 1970s and is one of the best of that decade as well as of all time.