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Rating:  - As a Male, I Dig This Movie
This film is categorized as a chick flick...but hey it made me cry too. I was a kid when I saw this film. My cat had just died, and guess what her name was? ...EMMA!!!!
Well when Emma died in the film I almost lost it..
Shirley MacLaine said working with Debra Winger was hard to do as Debra was very gassy...
Rating: - Very good, but predictable in a way.
This movie was a very good movie. I think it fully deserved its Oscar.
The only thing that bothered me was how predictable the ending was.
For me, Jack Nicholson was the highlight of the movie. He really was Shirley MacLaine's (character's) answer to her prayer
I do recommend this movie, mostly to women. It is a "tear-jerker" i guess (thats the category my local Blockbuster put it in,, but it wasnt for me) and men don't seem to interested in those type of movies.
So if you need a good cry, or if you wanna watch some good acting, check out "Terms of Endearment".
~Candace
Seattle Reviewer...
Rating: - COMING TO TERMS WITH PARAMOUNT DVD!
By all accounts Debra Winger wasn't easy to get along with either on or off the set. But before she disappeared from Hollywood she proved that she was, among other things, one hell of a good actress. In ?Terms of Endearment? she plays Emma, a newlywed, stricken with cancer and forced to grapple with the antics of her philandering husband, Flap (Jeff Daniels). The film is a potpourri of finely wrought performances and it really gets to the heart of the oddly confrontational relationship between a mother and daughter. On this occasion Emma?s mother, Aurora Greenwood is played by Shirley MacLaine. As the grieving, scheming, ultra-concerned, overly protective and manipulative mother, MacLaine is superb. It's really no wonder or surprise that she took home the Oscar for this performance. Jack Nicholson costars as has been astronaut, Garrett Breedlove, known more for his roving eye and noncommittal, devil-may-care attitude toward the ladies than his prowess in the cockpit. His love/hate stance with Aurora blossoms into a genuinely poignant relationship as the film progresses. Danny Devito also appears in a cameo as one of Aurora?s potential suitors.
Paramount Home Video has issued this movie in anamorphic widescreen. Colors are well balanced, though details get lost in darker scenes. The characteristic of the picture, overall, is one of dated 80s quality with film grain, grit and some smearing of colors and fading of fine details. Still, it's free of pixelization, edge enhancement and shimmering artifacts. The sound is flat but nicely restored. There are no extras.
BOTTOM LINE: GREAT MOVIE! GOOD BUY! SOME WORK LEFT TO BE DONE OVER AT THE 'MOUTAIN'!
Rating: - Very interesting characters.
Summary:
The movie is essentially about the relationship between a mother and her daughter but almost comes across as two separate movies because it follows the two women separately for a large part of the movie and then brings them back together at times.
Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) is Emma Greenway Horton's mother (Debra Winger). Aurora is over-protective and controlling, but Emma eventually finds her way out of her mother's home when she marries Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels). Emma and Flap move away from Aurora so Flap can pursue his career as a professor. Emma, meanwhile, is a stay at home mother and has three kids. While Flap and Emma are away, Aurora, who has constantly had suitors visiting her, finally decides she is going to develop a relationship with her neighbor, Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson), who is a former astronaut and is now a drink-crazed womanizer. As it turns out, Garrett is just the person Aurora needs to come out of her shell and their relationship turns into something more than is expected at the beginning.
While Aurora is finding someone to love, Emma and Flap are doing the same - they just aren't doing it with each other. Both end up having affairs (at least, so we think). After discovering that Flap is becoming involved with a woman, Emma goes to the doctor for a flu shot for her and her daughter and finds out that she has cancer.
Emma ends up dying, Flap goes off with the other woman, and the three kids end up with Aurora back in Texas who is continuing to develop her relationship with the slightly calmed Garrett.
My Comments:
The movie kept my attention throughout though it isn't particularly exciting (except when Garrett is around). What makes the movie so interesting is the characters - which should make most movies interesting. After watching it with some friends, I asked them what they thought and one of them said that they were all really screwed up people. I couldn't help but think that they probably were no more screwed up in their own way than most other people are. I think we are all strange and weird in our own ways. And, even though the characters in this movie might be a bit more extreme than some people, they are still people just trying to find people that love them.
The acting was great throughout - with the exception of some of the child actors and Emma. I think I would have given it a higher rating if I had been more convinced by Debra Winger's character. Perhaps it was the portrayal, or perhaps the portrayal was great and I simply didn't like the character, either way, I think Emma was my least favorite character even though she is the leading character. The worst part about her was her laugh - it drove me nuts. But, for some people that is probably be the best part about the movie.
Overall, the movie really is very well done. The story is simple and plausible and entertaining. It leaves you with the feeling that this really could happen, and, more poignantly, really does happen. People die, people cheat on their spouses, and people are not always nice. Life is like that.
Rating: - An Acting Tour de Force
I've always been fascinated by good acting. It can make a break a film for me. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT is an acting feast, boasting stellar performances from Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger (as unlikely a biological mother/daughter combo as you can imagine, but hey, this is the movies). Jack Nicholoson does his thing as your typical astronaut-next door, and is effective, although it's a bit surprising that he walked off with an Oscar for what was, for him, pretty much a walk-through. John Lithgow and a young Jeff Daniels don't have all that much to do either, although like Nicholson, they are, at least, true to form. But this is one for the ladies, and it belongs to its two female leads.
I had a chuckle when I read Amazon's Tom Keough's review posted above. "Lumpy" is not a bad term for this film. It's really another one of those Hollywood adaptations, where you just know the book had to be better, even if you've never read the book. Everything here is just a little too rushed, a little too sketchy. You know time's flying because different child actors keep cropping up, playing the same roles at different ages. There seems to be an inordinate haste to get to the meat of the drama, which is, of course, the illness and death of Debra Winger's character.
Overall, a better and more authentic weep-fest than, say, BEACHES or LOVE STORY. Not quite as powerful a family drama as, say, the similarly themed ORDINARY PEOPLE, however. Well worth seeing, if like me, you've somehow missed it all these years. If nothing else, you can learn a great deal about the actor's craft from watching two truly great actresses.
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