Terms of Endearment also won Oscars for Best Acting in a Supporting
Role (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress in a Leading Role (MacLaine), Best
Director, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another
Medium (Brooks, from the Larry McMurty novel).
The movie begins with a funeral, as mother Aurora (MacLaine) and daughter
Emma (Winger, played as a young girl by Jennifer Josey) cope with the
death of Emma's father. It's clear from the beginning of the movie just
how much Aurora depends on her daughter's presence.
So when Aurora objects to her daughter's marriage to Flap Horton (Jeff
Bridges), a man she believes has no future, at first it seems like jealousy
rather than a mother's intuition. Even long distance, the two women
continue to connect via frequent phone calls, sharing the details of
their life, such as marriage and money troubles on Emma's part, and
a romance with the astronaut who lives next door (Nicholson) on Aurora's
part.
Really, it seems as if, except for one friend in New York whose life
is very different from Emma's, the two are everything to each other:
confidant, friend and family. So even though they sometimes argue, their
bond carries them through.
Winger and Bridges were so young in this movie I barely recognized
either of them. Winger goes from being a tomboyish young woman to the
mother of three children with an undependable husband. Emma's hectic
life is in stark contrast to MacLaine's Aurora, who is always tightly
controlled. In fact, she fears losing control so much that, until the
astronaut comes into her life, her world is devoid of real intimate
relationships, besides that with her daughter.
I hadn't seen this movie before, and quite honestly, I was not looking
forward to it. I feared it would be a sort of Lifetime movie, manipulating
the audience's emotions. Yet, it doesn't feel like that at all. It feels
more like a document of a family's life, joy, and grief.
MacLaine is extraordinary as Aurora, with a deeply textured portrayal.
While Winger's acting seems effortless, that's a testament to how well
she embodies Emma. The contrast between them is so strong that, even
though the characters themselves rarely appear on screen together, communicating
over the phone, their emotional bond is clear.
Set in the recent past of the late 1970s or early 1980s, the moviemakers
did not have to design elaborate costumes or sets. However, great care
was taken to give this movie an almost documentary feel, with costumes
and sets suited to the characters and scenes.
This movie seems so real that it feels effortless, and yet a lot of
work did go into it. Brooks must have faced challenges, for example,
with all the phone scenes. Although we don't see much of each setting,
Emma and her family move around quite a bit, requiring several different
home sets and streets. Interestingly, Brooks based the look of the movie
on a previous Best Picture winner, The Best Years of Our Lives
(1946).
Until the ending, this seems like a movie about women finding consolation
and support in each other, especially when the men in their lives fail
them. As the movie enters the final act, however, it turns into a tearjerker,
which I won't spoil by revealing the ending. All the characters involved
handle this transition with adeptness, so that the movie never turns
into a weepy, overwrought, scenery-chewing affair.
Terms of Endearment is the sort of movie my siblings and I called
a "Mom movie": a family drama without a lot of sex and violence
that we could safely bring home to watch with the entire family, including
my mother, who had very particular tastes in films. Over the years,
I came to appreciate "Mom movies" for what they were: at their
best, richly-drawn stories drawn from human experience. And this movie
fits that definition.
