# Kramer Vs Kramer, your opinions please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2014, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067 "2014-10-30T23:40:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/1 "2014-10-30T23:40:30Z")
So, I really like Dustin Hoffman, and I never saw this movie, so Mr J. & I watched it last night. Like this move? Hate it? Find it Meh? Let me know! (I’ll post my own impressions later in the thread.) ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/2 "2014-10-30T23:45:19Z")
I saw it and vaguely remember Dustin Hoffman was in it. If I I’d have to say “meh.” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/3 "2014-10-30T23:46:44Z")
Hated it, but I also hate Dustin Hoffman, and I didn’t like the premise of the film, either. Can’t say why without spoilers. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/4 "2014-10-30T23:47:43Z")
Spoil away! ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/5 "2014-10-31T00:30:07Z")
I liked it well enough, but don’t have any desire to watch it again. I’m fine with the actor, but the movie was not a lot of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/6 "2014-10-31T00:45:39Z")
I saw this movie in the theater, first-run, with a woman who was divorced and did not have custody of her two kids because Dad had _literally_ kidnapped them from the city where she had lived and moved them out here. She had no clout, or money, and her lawyer advised her that if she ever wanted to see them again, she would have to move to where they were and attempt to establish visitation rights. She did. I guess the 80s were a different time. I thought they frowned on stuff like that now. Anyway, watching that movie with her was like getting a root canal with no anesthesia. Whether or not the movie was any good was not discernible. I have no interest in giving it another shot. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/7 "2014-10-31T00:52:15Z")
It was a topical movie addressing issues about changing gender roles. But it’s a thirty-five year old movie and society has moved on. It’s a relic now like _Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner_ or _Making Love_. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/8 "2014-10-31T00:54:00Z")
Hoffman was very good, as were Jane Alexander and Meryl Streep, but the movie was melodramatic and very much a product of its time (in fact, it felt a little \*behind \*the times) and I don’t think it’s held up well. ---
**Author:** ![btthegreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@btthegreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/btthegreat)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/9 "2014-10-31T00:57:15Z")
the only thing left to like is the acting, which was excellent. its really pretty hard to play ‘ordinary people’. The rest of the film is dated ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/10 "2014-10-31T01:01:30Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > I liked it well enough, but don’t have any desire to watch it again. I’m fine with the actor, but the movie was not a lot of fun. Yeah, me too. I remember at the time feeling sympathetic to the Hoffman character and a little pissed at the selfishness of the Streep character. But I was young, and might have a very different reaction to it now. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/11 "2014-10-31T01:13:43Z")
Saw it when it came out. HATED Streep’s character. Good but depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/12 "2014-10-31T01:52:01Z")
It’s a travesty that it beat out Apocalypse Now for best picture. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/13 "2014-10-31T02:07:55Z")
FWIW, I thought it was a great movie. It\*\* is\*\* hard to play just regular people, & I thought Streep & Hoffman (& Yeah especially him, and yeah, I am biased) were both very, very good. The kid was top flight. I like a movie for it’s moments and this one had some very good ones: The naked scene (Do you like fried chicken), the part where he’s explaining to Billy why Mom left , the scene where he demands a answer NOW from the 2nd agency after he got fired. (there’s a roomful of people there and he doesn’t see them or hear them.) Dated? maybe. I think it changed the status quo a little, plus the music is beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/14 "2014-10-31T02:41:50Z")
I remember thinking “How the \*\*\*\* does a woman who abandoned her family get custody?” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/15 "2014-10-31T03:01:40Z")
I remember it for a better than average drama at the time. Hoffman was hammy, I can’t remember Streep as anything but a generic villain, and there was some kid that acted in other stuff afterward. The story was about a guy who gives up a high paying career to struggle as a single dad taking care of his kid, and then something happened in the end I guess. ETA: Just looked it up, 1979! Wow, I thought it was at least in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/16 "2014-10-31T03:12:22Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The story was about a guy who gives up a high paying career to struggle as a single dad taking care of his kid, and then something happened in the end I guess. That’s really only the first half of the movie. The second half was when the mother returned and the couple fought for custody of the son. The character development was that Ted Kramer hadn’t been a particularly good father until circumstances forced him to be. But he had become a good father and he had to convince his ex-wife and the court that he had changed. The movie was really about Ted; Meryl Streep was playing a supporting role as Joanna and the movie made no real attempt to tell her side. You could probably make the argument that the title was referring to the conflict between the old Ted and the new Ted rather than the conflict between Ted and Joanna. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/17 "2014-10-31T03:17:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You could probably make the argument that the title was referring to the conflict between the old Ted and the new Ted rather than the conflict between Ted and Joanna. I don’t remember ever hearing that before. I do remember he had to become a good dad, there was some scene about the kid wanting ice cream for dinner or something like that. So what happens in the end? Does he get to keep the kid? ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/18 "2014-10-31T03:25:27Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > I remember thinking “How the \*\*\*\* does a woman who abandoned her family get custody?” That struck me as just wrong. Um, not Dale’s comment (I agree with that) but Streep’s character getting custody. I remember after watching it that I knew more about making french toast than I did before I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/19 "2014-10-31T03:42:08Z")
I actually saw it in the theatre upon release. It was a very well-acted movie by all accounts. It’s a snapshot in time. My dad was clueless about cooking and cleaning and stuff. I don’t really remember after these many years how it ended. I assume Mrs. Kramer took the kid away after much tear spilling. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067/20 "2014-10-31T04:01:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > …You could probably make the argument that the title was referring to the conflict between the old Ted and the new Ted rather than the conflict between Ted and Joanna. Ooo, nice. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kramer-vs-kramer-your-opinions-please/703067.md?page=2)