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“Kramer vs. Kramer”is one of the movies I still recall seeing at the cinema as a kid. Of course, I haven’t seen it when it was released, since I was only 1 year old, but after some more years, when I was able to watch a movie and maybe understand something of it.

Of course, that first time wasn’t the winner either, since my age was still too “tender”, but it remained in my mind as a good movie, just a tad sad for my taste as a kid.

We have a family breaking up: the father Ted (Dustin Hoffman) is more preoccupied with his career than family and fails to realize when his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) just had enough. So she’s leaving him and the kid (6 year old Billy – Justin Henry). How he has to manage being a single parent and, just when it’s all falling to place, she returns and claims custody.

The plot should be pretty simple and for us easy to choose sides. And still the acting made this tearjerker sweep 5 Academy Awards (Best Actor in a Leading Role – Dustin Hoffman,  Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Meryl Streep,  Best Director – Robert Benton,  Best Picture – Stanley R. Jaffe,  Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium – Robert Benton)

At first we can comment she’s the bad parent, in the end she’s the one leaving them both. And still, he was so involved in his career he failed to even acknowledge what grade his kid was in. From the absent father is forced to become more involved in his boy’s life, while Streep is disappearing from the plot for this part of the movie, to then return to take the kid into custody.

What might have been a simple melodrama turns into a memorable movie. Dustin Hoffman proves some excellent talent while Meryl Streep convinces us her roles in The Deer Hunter and The Seduction of Joe Tynan weren’t just an accident. Let’s remember more than 30 years ago she wasn’t the top actress she is now, and that role was yet another step in getting the appreciation she not gets from everyone.

So, even if it’s an old movie and you might consider it unimportant, make some time to enjoy it. And then let us know if you liked it.

May 27th, 2010 | Drama | No Comments »