Child custody cases now & then: From Kramer versus Kramer to Marriage Story.

In the 1970s, the movie Kramer versus Kramer dramatized the destructiveness of child custody disputes. It helped inspire family law reform and careers. The central problem identified was an adversarial system and hostile litigation. The proposed solution was alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Over time, these alternatives became an integral part of the family law response to child custody cases, except in cases of vulnerable parties. Today's parents are under greater legal and social pressure to resolve disputes without resorting to court. This can be welcomed and resisted by parents. This article focuses on parental resistance to dispute resolution over litigation through a return to Hollywood. The movie Marriage Story is used to show how parents might feel alienated rather than relieved by opportunity to cooperatively problem‐solve differences. Implications are explored in part through drawing from ethnographic research on parents who engaged in mediation through a U.S. family court program and through two Australian Family Relationship Centres (FRC). Key points for the family court community: Popular culture, such as movies, can be used by professionals to consider why parents may not perceive services and systems according to professional expectations.Comparing two divorce movies, produced 40 years apart, helps to consider how evolving societal expectations about custody and disputing may impact parent perceptions and behaviors.This article uses the author's past research to examine the depiction of a custody dispute in the movie, Marriage Story (2019).The movie portrayal of contemporary divorce and research outcomes presented in this article help explain how and why some parents may feel more alienated than empowered under today's family dispute resolution paradigm.An example of conflict for some parents in both the movie Marriage Story and in research study results was how they felt when advised to avoid court while considering implications of court oversight and judgment. In the movie, this is framed as, "Court or No Court." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]