Terms of Endearment | | Cast : | Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson | | Director : | James L. Brooks | | Studio : | Paramount Studio | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | November 23, 1983 | | DVD Released Date : | December 29, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | A remarkably believable and touching film! | Content
 | Terms of Endearment captivates me with the believable relationship of mother and daughter as brilliantly portrayed by
Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. It covers approximately 30 years of the turbulent yet loving relationship between mom Aurora and daughter Emma. They have their differences; yet the love between them is always so obvious. It's also refreshing how they seem to be able to talk about anything with each other, even their sex lives.
I've seen this movie several times, and everytime I cry at the end. In spite of the death, the movie ends on a positive note, giving us the feeling that life is going on and everything is going to be okay.
The budding relationship between Aurora and her neighbor (also brilliantly portrayed by Jack Nicholson) creates a plot-within-a-plot that is very entertaining and provides some comic relief from the sadness of the relationship between Emma and her husband and children.
The most interesting aspect is that Emma gets so bent out of shape when she finds out that her husband has been cheating on her, when she has been cheating on him as well. Somehow though we sympathize with Emma and her gentle lover (played by the very talented John Lithgow). We feel like they belong together and somehow their relationship doesn't seem wrong.
If you are in the mood for a movie that is entertaining and gut-wrenching at the same time, this is a perfect choice. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 23, 2005 | | Summary | "I Don't Know What It Is About You, Aurora, But You Bring Out The Devil In Me" | Content
| Perhpas the greatest film of the 1980s', James L. Brooks' 1983 masterpiece "Terms Of Endearment" (based on the novel by Larry McMurtly) is a powerful, motional and often hilarious story of a mother and a a daughter and the ups and downs in their often sad relation ship. Showered with awards (including an Oscar for best picture), it has not aged a bit since then.
Shirley MacLaine won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Aurora Greenway, a middle agd woman dealing with a dull life hampered by a tumultuous relationship with her daughter Emma (Debra Winger). Married to the dull witted Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels) and raising three kids, Aurora is dissatisfied with the lifestyle Emma has chosen. She is also unhappy with her own life. She is living alone except for her maid (Betty King), and the only man who seems to be interested in her is a short, semi-unlikable man named Vernon Dahlart (Danny DeVito). However, one man is about to change her life forever. That man is Garret Breedlove (Jack Nicholson, who deservedly won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), a carefree, boozing, womanizing former astronaut who adds a sense of la bella vita to Aurora's mundain existence. Meanwhile, Emma has suspected Flap of cheating, and she hooks up with a married banker named Sam Burns (John Lithgow, who wowed me with his performance). Unfortunately, Flap accepting a job in Nebraska ruins their chance of a true relationship. Soon, Aurora realizes that even though Garret has made her happy, she can't be with him. And to make matters worse, Emma has cancer. Everything culminates in a touching, heartwrenching finale (including MacLaine's famous "give my daughter the shot!" sequence) that will stay with you forever.
This is truly a movie that has stood the test of time. This film set the vanguard for tearjerkers, and with the exception of "Steel Magnolias", no film has ever matched this film (not even the 1996 sequel "The Evening Star"). Truly, this is one film that has earned the title "must-see". |
| Rating | | | Date | April 15, 2005 | | Summary | Endearing film; not to be missed | Content
| Larry McMurty's novel has been adapted to the screen amazingly well; the film won five Academy Awards, including the Best Adapted Screenplay Award, as well as Best Picture, Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Best Director (James Brooks), and Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson). The cast includes a wealth of Hollywood celebrities -- Debra Winger, John Lithgow, Jeff Daniels, Danny DeVito -- and the performances are outstanding throughout the film.
The story is one of a mother, Aurora Greenway, (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter, Emma (Debra Winger), and how their relationship develops over the years, from the day that their husband/father dies. Aurora is a woman with more than her share of admirers, whom she takes great delight in keeping at a distance, and who has a rather contentious relationship with her daughter, whose marriage to Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels) she opposes to the point that she boycotts the wedding. As it turns out, Mother is right. The marriage between Emma and Flap is less than rosy, with both having their extramarital affairs (although the extramarital affair that Emma has with Sam Burns, played by John Lithgow, comes across as endearing in the film). Almost parallel to the philandering of the daughter comes the pie-eyed former astronaut next door, Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson), who makes no pretenses about his intentions toward Aurora, and this time Aurora gives in. For the time that the affair lasts, Aurora is very happy. It has its run, then stops, but then starts again. Garrett, as it seems, has a problem with commitment, but he also has a problem with walking out on a good thing, too.
Flap comes home one day to break the bad news that the family is moving, thereby ending Emma's affair with Sam but continuing an affair that Flap was having. Emma discovers the affair and is indignant, but by now, Emma is also a mother and dying of a terminal illness. It becomes clear that Flap is not a candidate to care for the children after Emma dies, and Aurora re-enters the picture as the grand matriarch who will take over. When the moment of Emma's death arrives, the shock is still as painful as if nobody had expected it to happen. Garrett resurfaces to comfort the grieving Aurora and her family in a gesture that surprises Aurora greatly.
What really makes this film succeed is the vividness of the performances of the actors and actresses. Debra Winger's performance as the daughter who grows through a bad marriage and ultimately dies from cancer is unforgettable. Jack Nicholson's performance, as much as he has played the lecherous male before, takes on a new dimension in this film. Shirley MacLaine's performance earned her an Academy Award; she gives a superb touch in the most unforgettable scene in the film in which she approaches the nurses' station in the hospital at 10pm to tell the nurses to give her daughter her pain shot. As is very typical in all too many medical institutions, the nurses are preoccupied with their internal bureaucracy and not with relieving the suffering of the patients. That is enough to make her go ballistic; she starts to run around the station, screaming at the top of her lungs. The histrionics add both an intensely personal and yet somewhat comical touch to a poignant part of the film in a way that is amazingly effective.
This is a film that is definitely not to be missed. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 03, 2005 | | Summary | I seem to prefer Brooks' TV work better... | Content
| I really had a problem with this movie when it was released in 1983, and I still do. While I like James L. Brooks' TV work ("Mary Tyler Moore Show", "The Simpsons") I don't seem to love all his movies.
When "Terms" first came out, it was praised as being SO moving and SO funny and SO real, you'll just die as fast as Debra Winger (and her subsequent career)... Well, that was just typical early-80s hyperbole, but this movie is about as real and as poignant as an episode of "Little House on the Prairie"--- and about as funny.
I suppose it's harmless enough, but there is nothing-- NOTHING-- superlative about it. (I will be in the minority here, I realize). |
| Rating | | | Date | January 21, 2005 | | Summary | a true classic, Shirley MacLaine is riveting | Content
| Laugh and cry with Aurora Greenway and her daughter Emma in the Academy Award-winning classic TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. Aurora (Shirley MacLaine) and Emma (Debra Winger) share a strong mother-daughter bond. Since the death of her husband, Aurora greatly values and appreciates Emma's presence in her life.
When Emma marries Flap (Jeff Daniels) and moves interstate to cultivate her young family, Aurora busies herself with a string of gentleman friends and endless dinner parties. A romance with the charming, womanising astronaught Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson) keeps Aurora on her toes (including an hilarious lunch-date). Emma's marriage quickly hits the skids and so she bundles up young Tommy, Teddy and baby Melanie and heads for home. Through all the heartache and laughter is the remarkable bond between Aurora and Emma.
This film simply gets better with age. Shirley MacLaine's Oscar-winning turn as Aurora is a master class in acting. Jack Nicholson is a scream in his Oscar-winning performance as Garrett. And Debra Winger simply glows as Emma. Followed by THE EVENING STAR. |
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