Robert here w/ Distant Relatives, exploring the connections between one classic and one contemporary film.
The final Oscar campaign push for The Descendants painted it in the grand tradition of much Oscar-loved domestic dramas like Ordinary People or Kramer vs. Kramer. Okay, good enough for me. Let's compare. Particularly, for me, I like the Kramer vs. Kramer contrast, since both films follow the "absentee mom and fallable but ultimately well-meaning dad" narrative that seemed to really build steam in pop culture after Kramer vs. Kramer hit it big.
Consider it a kind-of anti-screwball comedy genre, not necessarily a response to men exiting the workforce, but to taking on roles that a quickly changing society had traditionally considered to be for women. At their best, such films could suggest that any gender-based definitions and divisions of spousal and parenting duties were ridiculous, cultural and social construct that need no longer apply. At their worst they featured the zany consequences of macho men taking on tasks that required them to be caring and nurturing... you know like women's work (I can't imagine a demographic or orientaton of people that films like this wouldn't offend in some way).
Both Kramer vs Kramer and The Descendants fall clearly into the better half of this equation. But there are other traps of which they skirt the edges. Consider, that the majority of films, then and now are made by men and for men... [Continue]
Movies about dads forced to do double duty can have a hint of "guy power" to them, painting their male protagonists as flawed, usually stereotypically detached workaholics purely for the sake of redeeming them later.
Moms don't come of particularly well, and in the two movies we're looking at here take your pick between unfaithful, comatose, self-centered, and saved only by Meryl Streep's nuanced performance. Kids are usually shuffled into the category of "perplexing in a way that only a mom could really understand." And rounding off the cast is usually an outsider mother who serves as a mirror image of our protagonist dad (Jane Alexander and Judy Greer respectively) whose alliance to or decency toward the guy serves only to buoy him up more.
Am I being too hard on our films this week?
Both Kramer vs Kramer and The Descendants live and die by their performances which present images of overworked parenthood and guess-as-you-go adulthood that are easy to relate to. Supporting characters eschew caricature and the subtleties and nuances of relationships are certainly recognized if not fully developed.
And then there's Ordinary People. It may seem initially out of place in this crowd but it fits right in. All three films follow the same solid structure, beginning with a rupture in the family dynamic and working their way through a period of uncertainty, ultimately stopping at the resolution of an eventual and inevitable separation. Where Ordinary People differs is that it gives equal, if not extra time to the family's teenage child. It makes a nice bridge between Kramer vs Kramer and The Descendants, the latter of which concerns itself with the effects of familial conflict on both a young and teenaged child. Timothy Hutton's Conrad and Shailene Woodley's Alex may not share the exact same pathos, but they're both people on the verge of adulthood dealing with the pain of a very fallable mother. And thus, in case you didn't notice, the last cog falls into place for Ordinary People, the bad mom.
If these films feel a little overly-constructed and concerned with upper-middle-class trobules, consider most of the classic melodramas of Hollywood's golden age, or the celebrated films of Ingmar Bergman. These films focused on daily family life attract an audience that wants to know they're not alone, that the inevitable drama of every day life can and will spiral out of control for everyone. On the other side of the hill there's always relief to be had... and usually a few Oscars.
Previous Distant Relatives
Sunset Blvd & The Artist
Rocky & Moneyball
Walkabout & Meek's Cutoff
Blade Runner & Moon
2001: A Space Odyssey & The Tree of Life