Spring 2015 #10: Terms of Endearment (1983) - James L. Brooks

Now I know what you’re thinking, “How many Best Picture winners starring Shirley MacLaine are on this list!?”

That’s all. I’ve been waiting weeks to say that.

So you’d think a movie with Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, John Lithgow, Jeff Daniels, and Danny DeVito would not be a 2 hour and 12 minute story about the heartbreaking relationship between a mother and daughter that ends in tragedy, but here we are. The film was nominated for eleven Oscars, winning five, three of which were for James L. Brooks.

And one for each of these two fine actors.

Okay so the film follows thirty years of the love-hate relationship between Aurora and Emma. We first see Aurora checking on her infant daughter by leaning over her crib to make sure she’s still alive, and then being satisfied when her daughter wakes up and starts crying. It’s perfectly emblematic of Aurora’s need to push test Emma’s limits as a daughter; Aurora’s satisfaction in her own role as a mother means more to her than her daughter’s well-being. 

There are no gifs of Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment on the internet so here she is getting out of a pink Rolls Royce in the 1964 comedy What a Way To Go! 

There are also zero gifs of Debra Winger. So bizarre. “Terms of Endearment gifs” only brings up tons of Leslie Knope compliments.

But the movie is touching, demanding the viewer to question what familial love means as these two women make their way through various tumultuous romantic relationships. Emma marries Jeff Daniels’ character, Flap Horton, while Aurora slowly is won over by the sometimes disturbing advances of her next-door neighbor, an alcoholic retired astronaut.

But the film isn’t really about men, it definitely focuses on motherhood and how complex the relationship is between mothers and their children. The most touching scene happens at the end when Emma explains her love for her two sons to them. It’s a heartfelt ending to an otherwise bizarre movie. 

Here’s another gif of boss-ass Shirley MacLaine in this comedy I’ve literally never heard of but now want to see despite its not-so-great reviews.

Terms of Endearment is a classic in the way it approaches comedy and mother-daughter relationships, and it deserves recognition for its incredible performances, the best of which is Debra Winger’s I believe.