| Terms of Endearment | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | James L. Brooks |
| Screenplay by | James L. Brooks |
| Based on | Terms of Endearment 1975 novel byLarry McMurtry |
| Produced by | James L. Brooks |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Andrzej Bartkowiak |
| Edited by | Richard Marks |
| Music by | Michael Gore |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 132 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million |
| Box office | $165 million[2] |
Terms of Endearment is a 1983 Americanfamilytragicomedy[3] film directed, written, and produced byJames L. Brooks, adapted fromLarry McMurtry's1975 novel. It starsDebra Winger,Shirley MacLaine,Jack Nicholson,Danny DeVito,Jeff Daniels, andJohn Lithgow. The film covers 30 years of the relationship between Aurora Greenway (MacLaine) and her daughter Emma Greenway-Horton (Winger).
Terms of Endearment was theatrically released in limited theatres on November 23, 1983, and to a wider release on December 9 byParamount Pictures. The film received critical acclaim and was a major commercial success, grossing $165 million at the box office, becoming thesecond-highest-grossing film of 1983 (afterReturn of the Jedi). At the56th Academy Awards, the film received a leading 11 nominations, and won a leading five awards:Best Picture,Best Director,Best Actress (MacLaine),Best Adapted Screenplay, andBest Supporting Actor (Nicholson). A sequel,The Evening Star, was released in 1996.
Aurora Greenway, a widow since her daughter Emma was a child, keeps several suitors at arm's length inRiver Oaks, Houston, focusing instead on her close, but controlling, relationship with Emma. Anxious to escape her mother, Emma marries callow young college professor Flap Horton over her mother's objections.
Despite their frequent spats and difficulty getting along with each other, Emma and Aurora have very close ties and keep in touch by telephone. Soon after the wedding, Emma gets pregnant with their first child. He is a few years old when she is again expecting another.
The small family moves toIowa in order for Flap to pursue a career as an English professor. When they run into financial difficulties, Emma calls Aurora for help. Admitting she is pregnant with a third, her mother suggests she go toColorado for an abortion.
When Flap gets home, as he was away overnight, Emma demands to be told if he is having an affair. He insists it is paranoia, brought on by the pregnancy hormones. While at the grocery store, Emma does not have enough money to pay for all of her groceries and meets Sam Burns, who helps pay for them.
Meanwhile, the lonely Aurora, while at a birthday dinner to celebrate her "50th" birthday, feels insulted when her doctor (a guest at her party) chides her for claiming to be two years younger than her actual age. She overcomes her repression and begins a whirlwind romance with her next-door neighbor, retiredastronaut Garrett Breedlove, who is promiscuous and coarse. Simultaneously, Emma and Sam strike up a friendship and quickly an affair as Sam's wife refuses to have sex with him, and she suspects Flap of infidelity.
Over the course of the next few years, the marriage begins to fray. Emma catches Flap flirting with one of his students on campus, so she takes the children and drives back to Houston immediately. There, Garrett develops cold feet about his relationship with Aurora after seeing her with her daughter and grandchildren and breaks it off.
While Emma is gone, Flap accepts a promotion inNebraska; she and the children return to Iowa, then they move to Nebraska. While on the campus, Emma sees the same young woman who she had seen Flap with in Iowa. Confronting her, she finds out he moved them to Nebraska so he could work with his girlfriend Janice.
When Emma is diagnosed with cancer, before she knows how advanced it is, her lifelong friend Patsy convinces her to explore NYC. She is there a short time when Patsy's friends there first find it strange she has never worked; then it gets more uncomfortable when they hear about the cancer. Not enjoying herself, she returns home early.
When they discover it is terminal cancer, Aurora and Flap stay by Emma's side through her treatment and hospitalization. Garrett flies to Nebraska to be with Aurora and her family. The dying Emma shows her love for her mother by entrusting her children to Aurora's care.
James L. Brooks wrote the supporting role of Garrett Breedlove forBurt Reynolds, who turned down the role because of a verbal commitment he had made to appear inStroker Ace. "There are no awards in Hollywood for being an idiot", Reynolds later said of the decision.[4]Harrison Ford andPaul Newman also turned down the role.[5][6]
The exterior shots of Aurora Greenway's home were filmed at 3060 Locke Lane,Houston, Texas. The exterior shots of locations intended to be inDes Moines, Iowa andKearney, Nebraska were instead filmed inLincoln, Nebraska. Many scenes were filmed on, or near, the campus of theUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln.[7] While filming in Lincoln, the state capital, Winger met then-governor of NebraskaBob Kerrey; the two wound up dating for two years.[8]
Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger reportedly did not get along with each other during production.[9][10][11][12] MacLaine confirmed in an interview that "it was a very tough shoot ... Chaotic...(Jim) likes working with tension on the set."[13]
On working with Jack Nicholson, MacLaine said, "Working with Jack Nicholson was crazy",[14] but that his spontaneity may have contributed to her performance.[15] She also said,
We're like old smoothies working together. You know the old smoothies they used to show whenever you went to theIce Follies. They would have this elderly man and woman – who at that time were 40 – and they had a little bit too much weight around the waist and were moving a little slower. But they danced so elegantly and so in synch with each other that the audience just laid back and sort of sighed. That's the way it is working with Jack. We both know what the other is going to do. And we don't socialize, or anything. It's an amazing chemistry – a wonderful, wonderful feeling.[12]
MacLaine also confirmed in an interview withUSA Today that Nicholson improvised when he put his hand down her dress in the beach scene.[16]
Terms of Endearment was commercially successful at the box office. On its opening weekend, it grossed $3.4 million, ranking number two at the US box office, until its second weekend, when it grossed $3.1 million, rankingnumber one at the box office. Three weekends later, it arrived number one again, with $9,000,000, having wide release. For four weekends, it remained number one at the box office, and it slipped to number two on its tenth weekend. On the film's 11th weekend, it arrived number one (for the sixth and final time), grossing $3 million.[17] The film grossed $108,423,489 in the United States and Canada and $165 million worldwide.[18][2]
Terms of Endearment received critical acclaim at the time of its release. OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an 82% approval rating based on 109 reviews, with aweighted average of 7.9/10. The site's consensus reads: "A classic tearjerker,Terms of Endearment isn't shy about reaching for the heartstrings – but is so well-acted and smartly scripted that it's almost impossible to resist."[19]Metacritic reports a score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from ten critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[20]
Roger Ebert gave the film a four-out-of-four star rating, calling it "a wonderful film" and stating, "There isn't a thing that I would change, and I was exhilarated by the freedom it gives itself to move from the high comedy of Nicholson's best moments to the acting of Debra Winger in the closing scenes."[21]Gene Siskel, who also gave the film a highly enthusiastic review, correctly predicted upon its release that it would go on to win theAcademy Award for Best Picture of 1983.
In his movie guide,Leonard Maltin awarded the film a rare four-star rating, calling it a "Wonderful mix of humor and heartache," and concluded the film was "Consistently offbeat and unpredictable, with exceptional performances by all three stars."[22]
As of July 2022, Nicholson is one of the few supporting actors to ever sweep "The Big Four" critics awards (Los Angeles Film Critics Association,National Board of Review,New York Film Critics Circle,National Society of Film Critics) for his performance of Garrett Breedlove.
American Film Institute (nominations):
The sequelThe Evening Star (1996), in which MacLaine and Nicholson reprised their roles, was a critical and commercial failure.A stage play, also titledTerms of Endearment and based on the novel, was written byDan Gordon.
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