Word: lifeness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...demands of his career and his responsibilities at home, the hero does not make the same mistake twice. At first tentatively, and then wholeheartedly, he throws himself into his relationship with his son Billy (Justin Henry). As he does so, Kramer offers a spectacle that is rare in both life and movies: a seemingly set character working fiercly into a new identity...
...cheer up the father with the same forced smiles and reassuring gestures that Ted used on Henry in a parallel scene much earlier on. It is a masterly way of letting the audience know indirectly that Ted and Billy, once near strangers to each other, have formed one of life's most durable bonds...
That is why, when Joanna finally reappears, it is hard to accept her. The woman who earned affection when she courageously walked out of her imprisoning marriage is now a villain: she wants to take Billy away from the father who sacrificed his work and restructured his life for his son. But again, Benton challenges the audience rather than let it leap to a pat moral position. As Joanna undergoes cross-examination at the custody trial, her virtues ever so slowly reappear. Because she has now regained her selfesteem, she seems better able than before to be a good mother...
...plot does not follow the facts of his life, of course, but many parts of Ted Kramer have been consciously modeled on the actor. "We wanted Dustin to draw on his own volatile, engaging personality in creating the character," says Director Robert Benton. "We tape-recorded our talks and took endless notes on his language. Everything was carefully worked out." If Kramer is brash, egocentric and often obnoxious, so too is Hoffman. If Kramer is tender, loving and often vulnerable, then Hoffman is as well. Like Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, he has turned the screen into a mirror...
...time on this." When his own child Jenna was born, Hoffman did what little he could to make up for such obvious discrimination. He was there, helping, and he had a photographer stationed outside the delivery-room door, ready to capture the first moments of new life...