Kramer vs. Kramer

Robert Benton, adapting Avery Corman’s novel, keeps the divorce out of court as long as possible. The middle is the school run Joanna always did, the chores Ted never did, and a standoff over Salisbury steak and ice cream; when the hearing arrives, Joanna’s reasons reach us only as testimony, because the camera has stayed beside Ted. Meryl Streep pushed back from inside the production. She was first attached to the smaller part of Phyllis, asked to read for Joanna too, and turned the novel’s unlikeable woman into someone with a defensible case. Néstor Almendros had been hired on the assumption that François Truffaut would direct; Truffaut declined and proposed Benton instead, which is how a domestic drama inherited that daylight look. At the 1980 ceremony it drew 9 nominations and won 5: Best Picture, Directing, Actor in a Leading Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, and Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium). It lost Actor in a Supporting Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Cinematography and Film Editing. Justin Henry, who plays Billy, was 8, the youngest acting nominee in Academy history. A good fit if you want a custody story assembled from repeated chores rather than legal fireworks. Not for viewers who expect the mother’s case given equal room; Joanna is defined largely by her absence.