A variation on the theme of The Champ, much more mundane but not much less maudlin, about a women's-lib widower raising a child on his own when the mother goes off to Find Herself and the custody fight that ensues when she returns eighteen months later as a Whole Human Being. The movie is arranged in short and simple and sweet scenes that chart the emotional ups and downs of the father-son relationship. There is almost no deception and no development in any scene; each one goes straight to the point. It is as though the up moments and the down have been portioned out by an emotional dietician and dispensed in concentrated, capsule form. Careful, neat, no mess. With Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry, and Jane Alexander; written and directed by Robert Benton. (1979) — Duncan Shepherd
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