BEFORE: Another legal case - this time a divorce hearing. Normally I'd be transitioning into love stories or romantic comedies for February, but the problem is, I used up most of the happy relationship movies over the past two years, so this year's films may seem a bit darker. Divorce, infidelity, and that's just for starters - other relationship problems no doubt lie ahead in this month's movies. I'm programming only about a month ahead, March is just a rough sketch right now - who knows, by then I could be in rehab, dealing with my addiction to Icy Hot (it has been a rather rough winter, shoveling is NOT good for my bum shoulder).
THE PLOT: A just divorced man must learn to care for his son on his own, and then must fight in court to keep custody of him.
AFTER: My apologies to Meryl Streep (last seen in "Before and After"), who really deserves the type of three-week marathon I devoted to Robert DeNiro - instead she's been popping up all over the countdown. I'll try to corral whichever of her films are left for a Streep-centric chain in June. I think this is her 8th appearance here, with at least 6 of her films left on the list.
I picked this up during TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" programming last February, which so far this year hasn't supplied me with many films (Thank God...)
Of course, this was Streep's first Oscar-winning film (2 wins and an astonishing 16 nominations so far) and the film also won Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director - jeez, even the kid got a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, so who am I to argue? The kid certainly gives a better performance than most child actors - just this week both "Jagged Edge" AND "Legal Eagles" featured divorced characters with kids, and those kids really had zero screen charisma. (Joseph Gordon-Levitt fared better in "The Juror", however)
Beyond the custody battle, this film is mostly a lot of connected vignettes from the life of a divorced man - putting his wife's photos into storage, learning how to make breakfast for his son, trying to balance fatherhood with his career at an advertising agency. All these little things add up to something that rings very true. IMDB tells me that Dustin Hoffman (last seen in "Marathon Man") had recently been through a divorce at the time this was filmed, and ended up contributing a number of ideas that made it into the final cut. Makes sense.
I work in a job where I keep track of the comings and goings of advertising agency personnel, and they do move around a lot (sometimes by choice, sometimes not). So the movie gets that right, but it's not possible to work a 9-to-whenever job in advertising and still pick your son up after school. School lets out at 3 pm, as I seem to recall - how did Mr. Kramer manage to be there? My parents both worked, so I usually went to my grandparents' house after school when I was that young. The film did show him having difficulties juggling his career with domestic chores, but as a NYC professional, wouldn't it have made more sense for him to hire a nanny?
A lot of people probably point to this film as some kind of turning point in the 1970's, since it features a woman going off to find herself (psst...you're RIGHT THERE!), unsatisfied with the normal wife/mother roles, and a man taking on traditionally female child-rearing duties. So feminism, baby-boomers getting divorced, encapsulating the zeitgeist, blah blah blah. I just think that it tells a great tale of individuals affected by divorce, and found something universal in their story.
Also starring Justin Henry, Jane Alexander (last seen in "Terminator: Salvation"), JoBeth Williams (last seen in "Stir Crazy") and George Coe (last seen in "Funny People").
RATING: 7 out of 10 pieces of French toast
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