French toast is much harder than it looks.

That was but one of the lessons about fatherhood from Robert Benton's spectacularly down-the-line look at a breaking marriage, and while the home truth behind the bread isn't the most groundbreaking of tutorials, the scene itself is magnificent.

Dustin Hoffman, playing ad-man Ted Kramer, is trying to drum up breakfast for -- and enthusiasm in -- his little boy, Billy (Justin Henry). The scene drips with Ted's desperation to win the boy's approval, making up bits about folded bread in restaurants to cover up just how utterly clueless he is in the kitchen.

All the while, Billy visibly knows something's wrong, a fact that is getting to Ted even as he's trying to hide it and his anger.

It's a disarmingly natural scene that immediately drives home both the urgency of the situation and the change in the father-son dynamic. Click here for the video.

The most impressive thing about Kramer Vs Kramer, a strikingly powerful look at a breaking marriage and its impact on a single parent, is how evenhanded a view it managed to present.

There are no rights or wrongs as Joanna (Meryl Streep) leaves Ted, and both have more than their share of flaws. Through scenes like the one above, and long stretches of impassioned dialogue, Benton impartially conveys both sides of the story -- a method that very effectively tears apart the viewer, hitherto accustomed to taking sides in a relationship drama.

The film is a masterclass in performances, Henry making an adorable foil for the adult actors. Jane Alexander delivers very evocatively in a strong supporting role as the Kramers' neighbout Margaret, but this is a film that belongs to the warring titular pair. Streep is astonishing as Joanna, her role lacking in screentime but positively loaded with depth and despair, and she carries it through with aplomb.

Hoffman, on the other hand, half-improvises his performance as he sets out to make us relate to the flawed, earnest and increasingly desperate Ted. Having just been through divorce himself, the actor contributed hugely to the film with personal inputs, and turned down an offer of a shared-screenplay credit from the director.

In one dramatic scene featuring the Kramers in a restaurant, Hoffman violently hurls a wine glass against the wall. He devised the shot himself, warning just the cameraman, wanting to capture Streep's startled reaction. She reacted, and stayed in character till the shot ended -- after which she screamed at Hoffman for frightening her so awfully.

Furthermore, when filming the very last lines of the last scene, a sobbing Streep asked Hoffman whether her eye makeup was ruined by crying. Benton gleefully kept the line in the movie.

Indeed, a film as blissfully unplanned as a marriage.

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