Star Power: Influence of Actors Essay

Rogert Ebert noted in his review of the film in 1979, that "Kramer vs. Kramer" is so intriguing because there is never the necessity to choose sides, although the film is unconventional for that time in that it was a woman leaving her husband and child as opposed to the man. The film shows a struggle between two unhappy individuals who are striving to find themselves -- Ted struggles in his career, and Joanna feels that she lost herself upon entering into the marriage. While this film belongs more to Hoffman than Streep, what is the most interesting in terms of social and cultural ideas is that Streep's argument at the end of the custody trial is a very simple "appeal-to -- the fact that motherhood is powerfully persuasive as a social institution" (Malloy 1981).

Streep's portrayal of Joanna Kramer shows some very important issues of this time period such as the desire for woman to have a career and a family and the single-parent family. Joanna Kramer has been viewed as a cold and even heartless character, which goes against a woman's societal role. Streep, off-screen, appears anything but cold as her star persona is very warm and oftentimes she is incredibly self-deprecating. Streep has become America's ideal actress and she has defied many odds in the film business as an aging actress who only recently starred as the romantic lead in "It's Complicated" at the ripe age of 60.

Eleven years after "Kramer vs. Kramer," Streep moved on to portray an Australian mother charged and convicted in the murder of her infant daughter in "A Cry in the