Terms of Endearment

source: Terms of Endearment

This is one of the worst films ever made. Shirley MacLaine over-acted within an inch of making me nauseous. It is basically the story of a mother who is a control freak and who cannot let her daughter live her own life. The daughter mistakenly lets her mother bring up her children when she is taken ill. Why they made a sequel is a mystery!

TERMS OF ENDEARMENT is an undeniably gripping and emotional film experience that will have you rolling on the floor during one scene and weeping uncontrollably during the next. This film follows the complicated relationship between an icy, Texan widow named Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine)and her slightly-off-the-wall daughter, Emma (Debra Winger), who at the beginning of the film is marrying a man named Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels), whom her mother clearly hates, seemingly just to get away from her. The film follows Emma's marriage through three children, infidelity, and unexpected tragedy but it never lets go of the unspoken bond between Aurora and Emma...a bond so strong that it transcends telephone lines, geography, and even dialogue at times...there are moments in the story where you see Aurora and Emma communicate without saying a word to each other. Writer-director James L. Brooks won a pair of Oscars for writing and directing this funny and heartbreaking story that stretches over a long period of time but never fails to hold interest and trust me, the last 20-30 minutes of this film will have you weeping. Shirley MacLaine finally won her long-overdue Best Actress Oscar for her controlled performance as Aurora and Jack Nicholson won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as a retired astronaut who moves in next door to Aurora after Emma moves out and begins a hilarious and touching relationship with Aurora. Debra Winger is explosive and unpredictable as Emma and Jeff Daniels is fully invested in the unsympathetic role of Flap. A truly unique motion picture experience that will leave you limp.

OK, I had low expectations when I saw this film; I didn't know much about it, but I had a sense it was going to be a "chick-flick". But since I'm determined to see every Best Picture film, I had to see this one. And since I was going to see it, I tried to start with an open mind. Well, it was worse than I expected. I can't quite rate it as "awful", because it did have a good cast, and I thought the performances were pretty good. And the story actually had me interested... for a while. My complaint is this: after setting up all these interesting dynamics and tensions between the characters, I was interested to see how it would all resolve. And the resolution? Well, here's the spoiler: the central character gets cancer and dies. That's it. Cheap, trite Hollywood cop-out. That's basically NO resolution. There never really IS any resolution of: 1) the mother and Jack Nicholson, 2) the older son's anger at his mother, 3) Emma's TOTAL (and totally annoying) hypocrisy about infidelity (and notice how, after having given the husband this sanctimonious sermon about how he had to come clean with her, she later TOTALLY dodges coming clean with him. Ultra-hypocrite), 4) The hatred between the mother and the husband. Because everything just gets pushed aside once Cancer comes into the story. By that point, it just becomes heavy-handed and obvious. Feh.

Every so often I go back and watch this movie again to confirm the awful truth: I just do not respond to it in any way except a mild revulsion. McMurtry, like some contemporary novelists (like, say Anne Tyler), has a bad habit of equating adultery with liberation and adolescent behavior to la dolce vita. On occasion, the story can still work (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, or THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, in Tyler's case), but mainly it's just a bunch of characters, desperate and floundering. (Albert Brooks notes in the far superior BROADCAST NEWS, "Wouldn't it be nice if neediness and insecurity were sexy?"*) The characters in this movie are uncommitted and insecure, but not in a way that really lets me in. And by the time the cancer runs its course, I've felt not even mawkishly manipulated -- that's how uninvolved these characters leave me (and each of these actors have, I think, been just great elsewhere). Boy, I admire James Brooks, and he tends to give us great, smart, witty entertainment. But not here, I'm afraid. *I can't say this is quoted verbatim.

A well-observed, well-made drama (with occasional comedic moments), that may not be exactly "high art" (it's neither profound nor original), but DOES feature some great acting and manages to pull you in. Debra Winger gives an extraordinary performance; she has a naturalness and expressiveness that you rarely see on the screen. When her character is happy, her whole face brightens up and her joy becomes infectious; when she's sad or confused or embarrassed, the emotions come across strongly, although she never goes over the top. Considering that she lost the Oscar to her co-star, Shirley MacLaine, who is reasonably good but far more one-note, I'd say we had a major Academy Award injustice there. Jack Nicholson is fun to watch and has some amusing lines, and most supporting roles, like those played by John Lithgow and Danny De Vito, are also first-rate and completely believable. So overall it's a good film, directed almost flawlessly, although in the final 20 minutes it needlessly wallows in melodrama. (***)

This movie consists of a highly disfunctional woman constantly bearing children while her phone rings off the hook with her mother calling her. Later, her vapid and self-absorbed mother falls for an equally self-absorbed and pompous baffon of a neighbour. The acting, while good, didn't make me want to care about any of the characters except for the kids. Overall, there's nothing redeeming about this movie. Truly a waste of film. I want those two hours of my life back, please. Rating 2/10.

Crash, The English Patient, and Dances With Wolves are generally regarded as some of the worst movies to win the Oscar for Best Picture. At least those movies were good. The Right Stuff, Scarface, Return of the Jedi, and The Outsiders were so much better than this! I tried watching Terms of Endearment twice and I could barely handle it. My hopes were not high when I watched this. I didn't even know how many awards it won until recent. I didn't even make it past the first hour the first time and felt like I should've gotten a medal for sitting through the full 131 minutes the second time. Terms of Endearment uncovers three decades (which the movie certainly doesn't show well) of a mother and daughter, played by MacLaine and Winger. Each want romance and happiness. Winger marries Jeff Daniels who becomes a college professor and they have some kids together. MacLaine falls for goofy astronaut played by Nicholson. There's really nothing more to it. A movie that documents these many years of somebodies' lives should give us a general sense of who these people are. What do they do? What are their personalities? What do they do in their spare time? What are their ambitions? And none of these general questions are ever answered for any of the characters! Well, I shouldn't say "ever." The only things I find out about any of the characters are that Winger and Daniels like to cheat. She cheats with John Lithgow yet is furious when she find out her husband is trying to get out of the same predicament. Karma's a &$?!! If found it really shocking how underdeveloped the whole movie was and I took a great amount of pity on the writers who created completely blank and careless characters with no plot at all. Why this movie won so many major awards is beyond me. 0.5/4

I've heard many good things about James L. Brooks's 'Terms of Endearment' and finally I decided to give it ago. Honestly speaking I was expecting a typical melodramatic tearjerker that's sole aim is to emotionally manipulate the viewer. I was wrong. 'Terms of Endearment' is a slice of life that centres around a mother, her daughter and their respective lives. The film looks very authentic. The sets, makeup, costumes and art direction look genuine. This is very much a character driven film. The dialogues are full of humour and wit but what's also striking is how deeply layered the words are. While the visuals are quite simplistic it's the characters that shine especially through the actors' natural performances. Their excellent non-verbal gestures, spot on line delivery and restrained performances are superb. A sassy Shirley Maclaine and bubbly Debra Winger are spellbinding. Both actresses beautifully carry the film and they are brilliantly supported by fine actors like Danny DeVito, Jack Nicholson, John Lithgow and Jeff Daniels. What particularly appealed to me about 'Terms of Endearment' is the depiction of the mother-daughter relationship and the dynamic of it. It definitely has its ups and downs and it does not involve the use of clichéd lines like 'I love you' etc but at the same time the unconditional love between them is wonderfully conveyed.

I never really got the "Oscar quality" to this film when it was first released and certainly don't get it now. Nicholson's part is the same sly cad he's played many times before, only phoned-in. Shirley MacLaine plays a brittle, over controlled (and controlling) version of the ditzy, oversexed characters she usually plays. Jeff Daniels is completely unbelievable as an academic (I used to be one). He doesn't even rate as a marginally employed academic although vapid guys like his characters often are the ones who wind up having affairs with the coeds. The accents are forced (like Winger, I'm a Clevelander and couldn't do Texas either). The cancer ending is forced and overwrought. I used to work with cancer patients and this film is an insult to them and their families. The performances lack depth and James Brooks clearly was better for television than for a film like this. I never read McMurtry's story, so I don't know how faithful it is. I hope the story isn't as gassy and predictable as the film.