Review: Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment (1983):

Synopsis – A mom and daughter are always on the edge of a fight, but their communication skills allow each other to grow as people and maintain a loving relationship through hardship and joy. A family drama with laughter and tears.

Starring - Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, others including an actor named Huckleberry Fox?

This film marks movie #6 on my March Movie Project. Once again, I asked my mom “what makes Terms of Endearment special to you?” Her response:

“I love the acting. The relationship between mother and child. One of my favorite scenes is when [SPOILERS] Shirley MacLaine pounds on the nurse’s desk and demands help for her dying daughter. That is how I feel as a mom. No limit to what I would do for my kids and grandkids.”

My mom feels a real connection with good family dramas like this, and therefore so do I. I am known to run screaming for the hills when it comes to any amount of cheese in a movie that I watch. I was expecting a lot of that sort of content in this film, and to my surprise there was hardly any. It seems like James L. Brooks knows how to handle certain actors, or maybe it depends on the script, but either way this was way better than Spanglish, and dare I say it, I think I liked it more than As Good as it Gets.

What I Liked:

-Debra Winger and Shirley MacLaine play off each other so well. Their dynamic is more like best friends than mother/daughter, but I’m sure that some people actually have that relationship and can relate completely. “A boy’s best friend is his mother”, where did I hear that before? Oh well. Anyway, I was already kind of in love with Shirley MacLaine as an actress, but now I really want to see some other Debra Winger movies and see if the magic is there too. It may be that this was just the perfect recipe for a meaningful imitation of a relationship.

-I enjoyed the way the progression of years was handled. I’m sure at some point showing children growing up became a cliché, but I’m not aware of it. It worked perfectly here.

-I like John Lithgow. I’ll take him anyway I can get him.

-I was under the impression that I don’t enjoy movies that end up being tear jerkers, but I guess I was wrong about that. I think my problem is when a major character in a film is suddenly (and usually obviously for plot reasons) killed off. But when a film takes the time to actually deal with the event of someone dying, it is vastly more interesting narratively. Terms of Endearment handled it really well. There wasn’t even an over the top mourning scene!

What I Didn’t Like:

-This film escaped any dislikes; very unusual for a film that is still flawed. Speaking of flaws though…

What I Hated:

-The score of this movie is downright atrocious. Every time it queued in I was jarred from being fully involved in the story. Why they went with a digital score as opposed to an orchestral is beyond me. And if I am mistaken and it is orchestral, it really doesn’t matter because there was no variety to it. It was all what I can only assume is called Terms of Endearment Theme.

Verdict:

Not only am I glad I watched this movie, it has renewed my faith in dramas as a whole. A drama doesn’t news to contain violence to be good, and it doesn’t have to steer completely away from clichés in order for me not to suddenly take ill. It can coast along those lines and still be an outstanding and heartfelt feature. Also, it made me feel better about the state of my living spaces. Great stuff.