Best Picture Winner: 1983

Terms of Endearment (1983)

James L. Brooks should direct more movies. He’s helmed only five films over the last twenty five years. Three of them are excellent: Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News (1987), and As Good As It Gets (1997), and the remaining two (I’ll Do Anything and Spanglish) are enjoyable. He’s also had an impressive writing background in television including Taxi, Mary Tyler Moore, and The Simpsons. Brooks deftly juggles humor and drama in his efforts, and he seems to bring out the best in his casts. Terms of Endearment may be his best big-screen effort: a winning chronicle of a mother-daughter relationship that is as strong as it is tempestuous.

Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) cares deeply for her exuberant daughter Emma (Debra Winger). She does not, however, approve of Emma’s marriage to Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels), and boycotts the wedding. She’s also not thrilled when Emma later announces she’s pregnant, or when the Horton family move from their Texas home to Des Moines so Flap can accept an associate professorship. Aurora is curious about her neighbor Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson), an astronaut who is quite the party animal and stud outside the rocket ship. The two form a decidedly offbeat relationship. Meanwhile Emma, now a mother of three, gets some disturbing news when she takes herself and middle child to get flu shots.

Terms of Endearment is a character driven, as opposed to plot driven, film whose episodic nature allows for the audience to become emotionally invested in the key players. Emma is a bit zany but adorable. Aurora is stern but caring. Garrett is over-confident and brash, but lovable. Flap can seem disinterested at times but is generally affable. We watch with unwavering interest these flawed but fascinating people deal with their various relationships. We become so attached to these people that the simple appearance of Garrett on some hotel stairs carries surprising poignancy. The excellent cast truly breathes life into these individuals, making us care about their fates.

Aurora never becomes the cliché overbearing mother thanks to clever little touches in the script, such as when it’s Aurora who wants to sleep in Emma’s bed, not the other way around. Aurora may express her opinions. But she never makes threats. She has her own views which may clash with those of her daughter, but the two quickly seem to forgive and forget. Emma is an eternally optimistic young lady, who, for example, takes great pleasure in the seemingly routine exercise of buying her husband a tie. She is shocked at the rather casual attitudes toward divorce and abortion that are expressed by some of her best friend Patsy’s (Lisa Hart Carroll) associates during a lunch. When Emma must confront some harsh realities as Terms of Endearment’s story unfolds, the impact on her is especially devastating.

The men in the story are also not allowed to become stereotypes. Flap may be a philanderer, but he still does love Emma. Garrett may be something of a sexist and a playboy, but he provides comfort and support to Aurora when she needs it. Aurora and Emma love the men in their lives in spite of the flaws – a truth, no doubt, in all relationships.

The result is a four-star tearjerker that earns its tears without feeling manipulative. Scripter/director Brooks and his cast bring charm and pathos to this story of a mother and daughter who have little in common except for their intense love for one another. Terms of Endearment is just as enjoyable today as it was more than twenty-five years ago.