the marriage of an upscale new york city couple with child fall apart when the wife want out ( it take a lot of courage for her to walk out that door . a neighbor tell u ) while the busy and distracted husband take on the motherly responsibility and grows closer to his son and but soon the wife return . highly manipulative picture doesn not give u a very realistic familial unit ( with young justin henry certainly not resemble the product of a marriage between dustin hoffman and meryl streep . ) and but the dynamic be intrigue and involve and and director robert benton keep the pace pop with lot of cleverness and marvelous classical music and canny editing and surefire bit of humor . streep character be design to be a cold and self center witch and but i be ready to feel a lot more for her than benton probably want . it all have to be paint in term of black and white and good and bad and with hoffman learn how hard his wife have it and get a second chance at be a good parent . the film never falter from it preconceive path and and very fine act nearly save it and but i be not sure where benton be steer the film in the final act and and the closing scene be awfully abrupt . from .