The movie starts with the elevator shutting down in between Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) and Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) and ends in the same note. In the start they separate with Joanna leaving their boy, Billy (Justin Henry) and in the final going to meet him. This is an open symmetrical instance which is totally different in the sense of the people’s frame of mind. Similarly the morning next to the day Joanna leaves the house, Billy wakes up Ted. Ted for a moment is not aware what exactly he is into. Soon realizing without any hesitation gets into kitchen along with his kid to prepare breakfast. He is clumsy, disorganized and ends frustrated at the end of it. He kicks the stove due to his failure in preparing a breakfast is what it seems to Billy, but it is the situation Joanna put him to. And at the end the very same French toast is made to perfection with small but intense exchanges of expression between Billy and Ted. Here again the frame of mind is different with the layer of same actions in symmetry. Adapted from the novel by Avery Corman, Robert Benton wrote and directed this film which won various Oscars including Best Picture.The first shot is the sunk but instantly likeable face of Meryl Streep as Joanna. She is kissing his son good night and that’s what Billy thinks. It is more than that; she is leaving him and her husband. She seems to emotionally disturb inside due to being neglected by Ted. Ted does not even have the slightest clue of the happenings. He is introduced telling a funny story to his manager. And rushes to the house and does not even listens to the gravest moment of his life. Joanna, his wife is leaving. This happens in five minutes. We do not know this couple. We do not know who screwed up. But it appears definitely and terribly wrong when Joanna walks away from their kid. We sense this and feel sorry for Ted. Ted’s life is turned upside down. He needs to trade in between important client meeting and attending a PTA meeting at his kid’s school. He loves his kid even though he is the crazy workaholic as he is introduced initially. In fact that is the reason Joanna leaves which is later revealed. He learns that he was not there for her. He also regrets the fact that he made Joanna the person he wants to be rather than her wish. This sudden shake in his life is confusing for him. His parenting skills are tested. In the process he insanely gets in love with his kid. While the general affection was always with him, this is the first time he spends time with him. Initially when he drops Billy at school, he asks him which grade he is in. That is the awareness he has over his own kid. With that he goes into listening to the story of his kid explaining crazy incidents. Life is unpredictable.
The shift changes and gets disturbed at the strike of parenting his kid for almost one and half year. Joanna returns and wants his son back. Things get ugly. People say things they do not want to. They feel the guilt and pain of hurting the person they loved or in love. They want to win their love for the kid. Billy is the haunted and punished soul in the process. For over six to eight years, he was with his mom. And one fine day she leaves and now he is so in sync with his dad, and he is in the verge of losing him. It may be a loss for Ted, but it is even greater loss for Billy. And as a kid, the innocence and ignorance adds up fuel to the already wounded heart. The film is cross sectional portion of these lives of three people. They are so madly in love and in a situation any one does not want to be in it.
People do mistakes. Ted did by ignoring and eclipsing the live of Joanna. Joanna did by leaving the kid. Some mistakes appear no repair or resurrection for it. It is done and will be there. It even cannot be dealt with. Analysis of it furthers ruining the situation to worse. The court room sequences are where every one is punished. And they are all good people. The most essential thing is confession and forgiveness for Ted and Joanna, but they confront each other. And the confrontation happens with them too. They realize their own mistakes and there is no surgery for that. They know it, but each of them feels their need for parenting Billy is better than the other. What can be done when two people fight for love so much that they are ready to hurt the person they loved?
Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Justin Henry. Their chemistry is something which makes the story telling so real and unique. At various points of time, they are not the characters. Some where we feel they are going through with them as a person. They are out there and experiencing this horrible circumstance. Sure it is a challenge to act but it is a pain which needs to be taken as a job. In the “Making of” documentary, Hoffman said that he was going through his own divorce when they were making the movie. May be this form as an outlet for him but it may also be the other side. Either way, this is a performance justifying the Oscar for Best Actor in Leading role. More than the powerful dialogues the film presents, it’s the body language and expression which pushes the viewers to the edge of emotional breakdown. In the final kitchen scene I said earlier, Billy and Ted do the French toast in a manner which is terribly sad. Both know the moment of the start of this recipe going bad one and half years ago. Ted is perfect and the smile from both sides keeps you shattered for a while. The ending may appear happy but still it is a loss for one party. Of course the story would have gone for all happy another ending, but it feels right where it is left. In the documentary, Hoffman said that the steno in the court room is a real one and she seems to be working for Divorce cases. And she said that she got out from sitting for Divorce cases and now she is extremely happy to work for the current sitting. Hoffman asked what it is and she said homicide. It is funny but so much truth attached to it in what she said. No one can watch two people fighting vehemently, desperately and quite pathetically for breaking the love they built upon knowing each other.
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