Kramer vs. Kramer

Kramer vs. Kramer

Winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, Kramer vs. Kramer remains as powerfully moving today as it was when released in 1979, simply because its drama will remain relevant for couples of any generation. Adapted by director Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, this is perhaps the finest, most evenly balanced film ever made about the failure of marriage and the tumultuous shift of parental roles. It begins when Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) bluntly informs her husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman) that she's leaving him, just as his advertising career is advancing and demanding most of his waking hours. Self-involvement is just one of the film's underlying themes, along with the search for identity that prompts Joanna to leave Ted with their first-grade son (Justin Henry), who now finds himself living with a workaholic parent he barely knows. Juggling his domestic challenge with professional deadlines, Ted is further pressured when his wife files for custody of their son. This legal battle forms the dramatic spine of the film, but its power is derived from Benton's flawlessly observant script and the superlative performances of his entire cast. Because Benton refuses to assign blame and deals fairly with both sides of a devastating dilemma, the film arrives at equal levels of pain, growth, and integrity under emotionally stressful circumstances. That gives virtually every scene the unmistakable ring of truth--a quality of dramatic honestly that makes Kramer vs. Kramer not merely a classic tearjerker, but one of the finest American dramas of its decade. --Jeff Shannon

Genre: Drama
Production: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
  Won 5 Oscars. Another 33 wins & 23 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.8
Metacritic:
77
Rotten Tomatoes:
88%
PG
Year:
1979
105
2,751 Views

Billy Kramer:
Daddy?

Ted Kramer:
Yeah?

Billy Kramer:
I'm sorry.

Ted Kramer:
I'm sorry too. I want you to go to sleep because it's really late.

Billy Kramer:
Daddy?

Ted Kramer:
Now what is it?

Billy Kramer:
Are you going away?

Ted Kramer:
No. I'm staying here with you. You can't get rid of me that easy.

Billy Kramer:
That's why Mommy left, isn't it? Because I was bad?

Ted Kramer:
Is that what you think? No. That's not it, Billy. Your mom loves you very much... and the reason she left has nothing to do with you. I don't know if this will make sense, but I'll try to explain it to you. I think the reason why Mommy left... was because for a long time... I kept trying to make her be a certain kind of person. A certain kind of wife that I thought she was supposed to be. And she just wasn't like that. She was... She just wasn't like that. I think that she tried for so long to make me happy... and when she couldn't, she tried to talk to me about it. But I wasn't listening. I was too busy, too wrapped up... just thinking about myself. And I thought that anytime I was happy, she was happy. But I think underneath she was very sad. Mommy stayed here longer than she wanted because she loves you so much. And the reason why Mommy couldn't stay anymore... was because she couldn't stand me. She didn't leave because of you. She left because of me. Go to sleep now because it's really late, okay? Good night. Sleep tight.

Billy Kramer:
Don't let the bedbugs bite.

Ted Kramer:
See you in the morning light.

Billy Kramer:
Daddy?

Ted Kramer:
Yeah?

Billy Kramer:
I love you.

Ted Kramer:
I love you too.

[Joanna returns to New York]

Joanna Kramer:
All my life I've felt like...somebody's wife or somebody's mother, somebody's daughter. Even all the time we were together I never knew who I was. And that's why I had to go away. And in California, I think I found myself. I got myself a job. I got myself a therapist, a really good one. And I feel better about myself than I ever have in my whole life. I learned a great deal about myself.

Ted Kramer:
Such as?... No, really, I'd really like to know what you learned.

Joanna Kramer:
Well, I've learned that I love my little boy. And that I'm capable of taking care of him.

Ted Kramer:
What do you mean?

Joanna Kramer:
I want my son.

Ted Kramer:
You can't have him

Joanna Kramer:
Don't get defensive. Don't try to bully me.

Ted Kramer:
I'm not getting defensive. Who walked out 15 months ago?

Joanna Kramer:
I don't care. I'm still his mother.

Ted Kramer:
Yeah, from 300 miles away. And because you sent post cards gives you the right to come back?

Joanna Kramer:
I never stopped wanting him.

Ted Kramer:
What makes you sure he wants you?

Joanna Kramer:
What makes you sure he doesn't want me?

Ted Kramer:
Okay look. We're gonna sit here and bat this back and forth. It's like old times.

Joanna Kramer:
You can't deny me...

Ted Kramer:
Don't tell me what I can or cannot do! Don't talk to me that way!

Joanna Kramer:
I anticipated this.

Ted Kramer:
Okey look, I don't want to hear this. Do what you have to. I'll do what I have to.

Joanna Kramer:
Fine... I am very sorry about this.

Ted Kramer:
Okey, just do what you have to do.

Ted Kramer:
[in court] There's a lot of things I didn't understand, a lot of things I'd do different if I could. Just like I think there's a lot of things you wish you could change, but we can't. Some things once they're done can't be undone. My wife, my ex-wife, says that she loves Billy, and I believe she does, but I don't think that's the issue here.If I understand it correctly, what means the most here is what's best for our son. What's best for Billy. My wife used to always say to me: 'Why can't a woman have the same ambitions as a man?' I think you're right. And maybe I've learned that much. But by the same token, I'd like to know, what law is it that says that a woman is a better parent simply by virtue of her sex? You know, I've had a lot of time to think about what it is it that makes somebody a good parent? You know, it has to do with constancy, it has to do with patience, it has to do with listening to him. It has to do with pretending to listen to him when you can't even listen anymore. It has to do with love, like, like, like she was saying. And I don't know where it's written that it says that a woman has a corner on that market, that, that a man has any less of those emotions than a woman does.Billy has a home with me. I've made it the best I could. It's not perfect. I'm not a perfect parent. Sometimes I don't have enough patience because I forget that he's a little kid. But I'm there. We get up in the morning and then we eat breakfast, and he talks to me and then we go to school. And at night, we have dinner together and we talk then and I read to him. And, and we built a life together and we love each other. If you destroy that, it may be irreparable. Joanna, don't do that, please. Don't do it twice to him.


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