Review of Terms of Endearment (1983) by Marty H — 31 Mar 2013

This movie spans about 30-40 years in a flash. Sometimes when a new scene would begin, life had fast forwarded 10 years promptly placing you in the lives of this family's latest dilemma. The dilemmas here are marital problems, and mid-life crises.

I enjoyed seeing Jack Nicholson and Shirley Maclaine together. She compared her affair with him to a moth flying into the fire. Nicholson's character doesn't change much for the better, neither does the hansom, likable Jeff Daniels. This is a problem because we expect them to conform, settle into their roles as life partners, parents, and grandparents and it just never happens. And that is life! Most of the time, that is life!! It was probably hard for everyone to listen to Debra Wingers last words of advice and courage to her kids as she lay dying. The image of her youngest boy breaking into tears is forever memorable. But for me, it was even harder to see the children's father at the funeral, not knowing what to say to his oldest son. "It's going to be alright" he says. The camera flashes over to MacLaine, then back to the kid and the father is gone. That tugged one of my heartstrings.

I would have liked to see more from Jeff Daniels but he was a young actor here. The expectations are much higher from him nowadays.

This movie was nominated for a whopping 11 Academy Awards and took home 5, including Best Picture of the year. Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine won awards for supporting and leading roles. MacLaine was outstanding! Nicholson was great but he really didn't have to do much to win here. He was drunk, he was a player, he didn't say much. He developed feelings for MacLaine unlike any he had had for any other woman in while, but the only thing that convinced me of that was for the simple fact that he WAS THERE. He lived next door to her. He wasn't going anywhere.

Superb writing, passionate acting with a very memorable performance from Shirley MacLaine, and direction that carries you through the movie as if you have lived with this family for half a lifetime. Too good of a movie to be labeled a "chick flick".

5/5.