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sometimes people really piss me off…. so then I watch a movie

• 6 October 2009

Movies in the 70s were quite cool.  I’m keen to watch all the films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, so the 1979 movie Kramer vs. Kramer was squarely on the list. The film, which stars Meryl Streep Dustin Hoffman, examines the phenomenon of divorce’s increased frequency and its affects on the nuclear structure of families in America.

Streep runs off because she isn’t happy and needs to “find herself,” on the exact same day as her husband (Hoffman) gets a promotion at work. He’s left to take care of his son himself AND juggle his increased workload, with hillarious consequences and a heartwarming growth in his ability to parent and nurture. Aww. After a 18 months, just when everything is going well, Mrs. Kramer (who heretofore has only sent a few measley letters to her son) appears out of the blue, newly well adjusted and eager to reclaim custody of her son. Things begin to fall apart for Mr. Kramer.  He loses his job soon after his estranged wife returns because he’s been splitting his time at work with his caring duties (no flex time options in the 70s).  He’s therefore vulnerable to his wife’s court attacks. A heated battle ensues, and unfortunately, about 15 minutes before the end of the film, Hoffman loses official custody of his son.

What I want to know is, Mr. Kramer could have kept his kid AND his job if he’d just gotten a babysitter or a nanny for the evenings… he had enough money, as he’d just gotten a raise, right? I mean… it just doesnt make sense that he’s the ideas man in an advertising company, and he didn’t think of that one… But then, there wouldn’t have been a movie, and all that drama, and they wouldn’t have won the Oscar…

Plum

[image: amazon.com]

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