Terms of Endearment ***** (1983, Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson) – Classic Movie Review 7507

Director James L Brooks’s extraordinarily successful 1983 Terms of Endearment scooped up Five Oscars, including Best Picture (James L Brooks), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Shirley MacLaine), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jack Nicholson), Best Director (James L Brooks) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (James L Brooks).

There were six other Oscar nominations. There were four Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, and no Bafta awards.

This marvellous blend of joy and pain details the rollercoaster ride of the up and down emotions between strong-willed, hard-to-please widowed mother Aurora (Shirley MacLaine) and her combative grown-up daughter Emma (Debra Winger).

The actors do a splendid job. Oscar winners MacLaine and Jack Nicholson, who dominates the film’s comic middle section as a boorish, potbellied ex-astronaut neighbour, are hugely entertaining, while Winger’s hard-edged performance turned her into a star.

In support, the exceptionally talented trio of Danny DeVito, Jeff  Daniels (as Flap!) and John Lithgow do what they can with what little is left over for them.

Début director Brooks also produces and writes the screenplay based on the novel by Larry McMurtry, and won three Oscars as writer, director and producer.

Also in the cast are Lisa Hart Carroll, Betty R King, Huckleberry Fox, Troy Bishop, Shane Serwin, Megan Morris, Tara Yeakey, Norman Bennett, Jennifer Josey, Kate Charleson, Tom Wees, Paul Menzel, F William Parker, Amanda Watkins, Buddy Gilbert, David Wohl, Charles Beall and Leslie Folse.

It was a very big box office winner. Costing $8,000,000, it grossed  $108,000,000 in the US.

Terms of Endearment is directed by James L Brooks, runs 132 minutes, is produced and released by Paramount, is written by James L Brooks, based on the novel by Larry McMurtry, is shot in Metrocolor by Andrzej Bartkowiak, is produced by James L Brooks, is scored by Michael Gore and is designed by Polly Platt.

It is MacLaine’s only Oscar and most recent nomination, following Some Came Running (1958), The Apartment (1960), Irma la Douce (1963) and The Turning Point (1977).

MacLaine returned when a sequel followed: The Evening Star (1996).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7507

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