I had a hard time discussing this movie without revealing the ending. Although I doubt that anyone who reads this will enjoy the movie, you've been warned.
I am nearing the end in my quest to see every film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. I only have two left - Rain Man and The Silence of the Lambs. The winner from 1983, Terms of Endearment, is one the most atypical movies ever to win the award. Best Picture winners are usually big epics or movies with some serious social message, or both. This is a "little" dramady that could be classified as a chick flick.
It seemed promising. It was based on a novel by Larry McMurty, whose work provided the literary basis for The Last Picture Show and Brokeback Mountain. It was also the first movie directed by James L. Brooks, a famed writer and producer of such TV classics as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi. Although I don't generally like TV, I will acknowlege that these programs are among some of the best ever broadcast.
But the brand of humor and cameradiere that works on a TV sitcom doesn't translate very well to the big screen (in my opinion, anyway). This could be a forerunner to my despised Clever Comedy genre, because of every character has an obvious quirk. Like a TV show, the movie has a large ensamble cast of interconnected characters. This film centers around midlaged Aurora Greenaway (Shirley MacLaine) and her adult daughter, Emma (Deborah Winger). Both Debrah and her husband Flap (Jeff Daniels) are having affairs, while Aurora begins to date a womanizing former astronught (Jack Nicholson). The movie appears to be comedy of quirks until the third act win (spoiler) the movie becomes a tearjerker when Emma is diagnosed with cancer. The last parts of the movie resemble the end of Million Dollar Baby without the assissted suicide plot. I don't consider that to be a complement.
Although the movie was obviously critically acclaimed, I don't think that Brooks' style is appropratiely cinematic. His direction is somewhat simplistic (just like a TV sitcom), while he allows the actors to turn of up the eccentricies (just like a TV sitcom). It goes without saying that I didn't find the movie funny, except for Nicholson, who is hilarious. Unfortantley, he isn't on the screen enough. There are some very sad scenes, but like Eastwood's film, they belong in a movie that earned to make us sad with believablity. This movie wants to make you cry, not for any reason, but just to make you cry. It's manipulative for the sake the being manipulative.
Now, Edwin and Kristen, I know this sound just like the kind of movie you'd love to see, but you really should stay away. I mean, what kind of movie casts Jack Nicholson as an alcoholic, womanizing astronaight, and gives Shirley MacLaine more screentime?
Terms of Endearment (1983)