“Terms of endearment ” is a classic comedy/drama and is an entertaining film depicting a light entertainment in the beginning and a melodrama afterwards.
Director --- James L. Brooks
Writer ------- Larry McMurthy
Released ----- 1983
Star cast ----- Debra Winger (Emma); Shirley Maclaine (Aurora Greenway)
Jeff Daniels (Flap Horton); Huckleberry Fox (Teddy)
John Lithgrow (Sam Burns); Jack Nicholson (Garrett Breedlove)
Plot
A major Academy Award winner, released in 1983, the movie is about an overprotective mother Aurora. She is so concerned about her daughter’s health that she gets up every five minutes to check her health. In fact, she is so over concerned about her infant’s well-being that she wakes her up from a peaceful quiet sleep to let her wailing in the wee hours of the night for her own satisfaction.
As Aurora ’s daughter Emma grew up, she rebels against her Mother’s attentions and independently decides to marry a literature student Flap Horton. She then moves to Des Moines , Iowa from her native place Houston , Texas .
However, life was as difficult to deal with for the young mother, Emma. Unpaid bills became common. Situations got worse when Emma’s little boy Teddy had to return a small candy bar for want of money. To make the matters worse Emma’s husband Flap Horton started having an affair with one of his graduate student.
Back at Emma’s homeland, her mother started having an affair with her next door neighbor Garrett Breedlove- a former astronaut. The light side of the movie shows an affair with barbed conversations, each and every time they meet each other.
When they kiss each other, Aurora is enthralled, but gets angry when Garrett puts his hand inside her blouse because he is drunk.
They end up with having sex at the ripe age of 50 only after Aurora ’s insistence of having sex with lights out.
Terms of Endearment takes another turn when Aurora gets the news of her ailing daughter fighting with cancer in the hospital and is on her deathbed.
The movie’s finale gets touchy, heartbreaking and unexpected, all of a sudden. What follows is the touching conversation between Emma and her son, where she tries to convince her son that she loves him a lot and knows that he also loves her the same way.
Terms of Endearment comes to an end with the two boys being accepted by Aurora and Garrett. A happy ending indeed!
