Evan d. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. Terms of Endearment is the fifty-sixth film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. Widowed in her 30s, Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) is left to care for her young daughter Emma (played as an adult by Debra Winger) all alone. Over the course of about three decades mother and daughter share a contentious but close and caring bond. As Emma grows older, she branches off on her own. She marries a dopey local boy named Flap (Jeff Daniels) over her mother’s objections and the pair have a family of their own. They move away from their Texas home, leaving behind the frequently critical Aurora. Meanwhile, the elder Greenway remains at her Texas estate, hosting a revolving door of suitors. Treating each to a casual disinterest, she is beguiled by Garrett (Jack Nicholson), the raucous and promiscuous former astronaut who moves in next door. His chaotic nature and wild temperament both frustrates and enraptures Aurora. Over the phone the mother and daughter pair comfort one another through tumultuous relationships until tragedy strikes and everyone is brought back together again. James L Brooks directs this adaptation of a Larry McMurtry novel of the same name, bringing along the sense of humor, earnestness and emotional punch he would become associated with. His direction is never flashy, instead focusing on bringing the most out of his characters. It is the great strength, and at times weakness, of the film that Brooks is able to heighten the people in his story so that they represent something more than just an individual. Performance has a lot to do with the success of this strategy as well. Shirley MacLaine, no stranger to Academy Award winning pictures, is the cornerstone of Terms of Endearment. Her steely, often stubborn demeanor proves a humorous contrast to Nicholson’s lovable lunatic. In a film full of over the top personalities, its Winger’s Emma that actually grounds the story. In her you really feel the squeeze of a woman constantly trapped between and a rock and a hard place. While everyone else gets their big explosive moment, Winger keeps the film from feeling out of reach. It’s in the bigness that Terms of Endearment falters under its own weight. At times it, and the people whose stories it tells, feel absurd bordering on cartoonish. Aurora is constantly flanked by a cadre of wannabe Mr Greenways. Highlighting this group is Danny DeVito, complete with a bolo tie and a southern accent hanging off her every word. Nicholson might be the worst offender. As entertaining as he is, there is little authentic to that character for the vast majority of the film. In a way Garrett Breedlove is the synthesis of Terms of Endearment, embodied in one person. Wildly entertaining, unpredictable and over the top until finding some heart and emotional depth in the waning scenes. And those late moments really do hit hard. When everything settles down, the film becomes a fractured family coming together in the face of unimaginable tragedy. Emotional enough to corral all of the chaos and cut to the heart of what binds people together. 7/10
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