Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

gwnightscream Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry and Jane Alexander star in this 1979 drama based on the novel. Hoffman (Rain Man) plays Ted Kramer, a New York dad who fights for custody of his young son, Billy (Henry) after his wife, Joanna (Streep) leaves them. Alexander plays Margaret, Ted's friend & neighbor. Hoffman is terrific in this, I think it's one of his best performances and Streep and the rest of the cast are good as well. I recommend this good 70's drama.

sharky_55 Kramer vs. Kramer begins with the picking up of the ashes of an eight year marriage. We are left trying to assemble the broken pieces of the Kramer household in the period where we would be conventionally just being introduced and warming up to the characters. So it is a mystery, in a sense, working backwards - clues are laid out in front of us and we must try to decipher them and answer the question of why Joanna Kramer might want to walk out on her husband, but more importantly, her seven year old son. For a moment there is the suggestion that there may be a disability in play, but soon we realise that he is just another clumsy seven year old who wants ice cream instead of dinner. What Benton does here is use Joanna's absence as actual narrative. The wide swathes of the motherhood experience missing from the household tell us all that we need to know about her previous role. Billy is well-drilled; he knows exactly what brand of cereal and detergent is the best, has memorised where all the kitchen utensils are, and from rubbing of his mother's shoulders seems to be the better cook too. Ted knows none of this. He doesn't even know what grade his son is in. These early sequences of him struggling to reconcile his new duties as a father and handling a major account at his work are the easy, sentimental stuff that must inevitably occur when we are dealing with stories of parenthood. Yes, Billy may be a little brat at times, but he is also only seven, and Ted must re-learn this again and again. Until they are finally bonding, and must bide their time before it is ripped away from them. It is not so hard to get through this familiar material because Hoffman is such a natural at the role - the moment where he sees Billy wobbly take off on his bicycle and his face creases up the widest smile you have ever seen is so believable and such a relief because we too have been taken on this journey and we know the baggage that lies heavy in his heart. The early, chaotic french toast breakfast is later masterfully contrasted with another breakfast; again it is french toast, and this time they have mastered the routine, but there is a deafening silence because of what is to come, and they are trying to enjoy every last moment of it, but also trying to pretend like it isn't coming. Many have labelled this a court-room drama. I think this is the wrong tag. It comes with the assumptions that the dialogue comes thick and fast and there are pre-determined moments where we gasp and the lawyers strike dramatic poses and swap steely gazes. This is nothing as flashy and surface-level. The lawyers themselves are still snappy and ruthless. Joanna's in particular has completely rid himself of any heart and narrowed his sights on not only getting Billy back but also destroying all constructs that Ted's fatherhood might have erected. He repeatedly cuts off Margaret because he is not interested in the backstory but only getting his conviction soundbites that paint a much different story than what is really happening. No, the meat of the story is here, but it is not within the court system and the way it strips down everything to nothing but cold, hard facts and twists their intentions cruelly. As each side pleads their case both Joanna and Ted begin to realise that their battle is a fruitless one if Billy is to suffer for it, and start to turn back on their own arguments. The clear cuts and divides in the law are revealed to be not adequately equipped to handle such delicate and emotionally jumbled issues. If this wanted to fill seats it would have had young Billy himself take the stand and somehow magically see things clearer than the adults and repair the broken marriage. But he is only seven. Rarely can a film be so impartial. It asks nothing of its characters but complete honesty. Are their egos worth ripping apart the life of their young son? In the end, they make the right decision.

yuukiftb Ted Kramer is a man who is spending his whole time working although he has wife Joanna, and a child Billy. Joanna takes care of little Billy, and do housework. However, she wants to get a job actually, and decides to go somewhere alone. Suddenly, without Joanna, Ted and Billy start to live together. Ted doesn't know a lot of things like how to make French toast. Ted comes to do so many things that he has not done before. It is such a hard work for him, but they are getting closer and closer compared to before. One and a half year passes by, Joanna comes to Billy back. She decides to try a trial. How will they be in the end? The reason why I watched is my friend recommends me to watch. As my friend told me, it is worth watching, because the theme is family. We can understand the story easily, because it is related to every person. After I watch it, I come to think what the important thing it is, and if I were in the same situation as Billy, what I would think and feel. I want to recommend this to my friend too.

FilmBuff1994 Kramer vs. Kramer is an outstanding movie with a very well developed storyline and a brilliant cast all around. It's a dramatic, and at times very surreal, film that deals with the subject of divorce in the most blunt way possible, showing how a couple can simply wake up one morning and realise they don't love each other anymore, and fight for the custody of their child, it's dramatic and it never cuts corners or tries to be sweet, it's just life. The plot is very slow moving at times, which is my only real issue, while it's nice to have a slow pace that mostly consists of dialogue, there comes a time when we want the plot to develop, there's a very long period where we don't see or hear from Meryl Streep's character, and are left feeling very anxious. The performances are magnificent and this type of film couldn't have been good without that, Dustin Hoffman, one of my favourite actors, shines in this role, he could definitely relate to Ted Kramer and played him very naturally, he bottles up his emotions, which is just as powerful as crying, his scenes with his on screen son Justin Henry are the highlight of the movie, there is a real love and bond there as Hoffman is forced to become a real father figure. Meryl Streep also shines in all her scenes, she's a miserable, emotional wreck and it can be seen in every moment she is on screen. A powerfully acted and surreal masterpiece, Kramer vs. Kramer still holds up today and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good drama. After their marriage falls apart, a couple fight for the custody of their son. Best Performance: Dustin Hoffman