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| Title | Montrose Voice, No. 162, December 2, 1983 |
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| Publisher | Community Publishing Company |
| Date | December 2, 1983 |
| Language | English |
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| Identifier | OCLC: 22329406 |
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| Rights | In Copyright |
| Note | This item was digitized from materials loaned by the Gulf Coast Archive and Museum (GCAM). |
| Title | File 015 |
| Transcript | 14 Montrose Voice/ Dec. 2,1983 Terms of Endearment' is Rare Emotional Experience Films By Steve Warren With cancer touching more of us every day, it's useful to have a movie that doesn't prettify it. If that's not your idea of entertainment, the same movie happens to contain enough outrageous humor that they could have named it National Lampoon's Love Story. But it's called Terms of Endearment, and it ties its diverse elements together in a cliche-free portrait of a strange but real mother (Shirley MacLaine) and daughter (Debra Winger). Writer-producer James L. Brooks, the creator of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi, makes an impressive big-screen directing debut that should win him an Oscar nomination. A few early scenes establish Aurora Greenway as a tart-tongued widow whose outspokenness keeps even her beloved only daughter Emma at arm's length. ("Sure would be nice to have a mother somebody liked.") When Emma marries Flap (Jeff Daniels), a blond hunk who calls her his "sweet-ass gal," Aurora advises against it ("You're not special enough to overcome a bad marriage!") and even boycotts the wedding. Still, Aurora and Emma are joined—at least by telephone—'til death do them part—which may not be true for Emma and Flap, whose money troubles lead to other marital strain, even while their love produces three children. ("How is your life going to get better," Mama nags, "if you keep having children with that man?") Mother and daughter drift into simultaneous affairs. Aurora, who refuses to grow old gracefully, accepts a longstanding proposition from nextdoor neighbor Garret Breedlove (great name!), a retired spaceman ("There's a hundred and six astronauts in the whole fuckin' world, and I'm one of them!") who lives higher than he ever flew. Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger as mother and daughter in "Terms of Endearment" Emma, afraid that Flap is having film's funniest line, a terrific putdown of affairs, has one of her own with shy, mar- New Yorkers, in his first scene), ried banker John Lithgow (who has the It sounds like soap opera in synopsis. especially when cancer enters the picture, but Brooks' humor keeps it from going that route until a bit of tear-jerking at the end. By that time, we've come to know and care about the characters, despite their off- putting humanness. It's unfortunate that the two stars don't have more scenes together or a real acting duel might have resulted; but while Aurora stays home in the River Oaks section of Houston, Emma goes with her husband to Iowa and Nebraska. So we get two strong individual performances. MacLaine takes to the Belf- deprecating role like a true masochist (who else would let herself be photographed in such unflattering costumes?) and is rewarded with dialogue that once only Bette Davis could have gotten away with. Winger has the more ordinary part, but it has quite a range to it, and she handles it superbly. Jack Nicholson plays the neighbor with the wrong stuff, and talk about self- effacing! He reveals a belly that's large enough to get separate billing! Brooks has explained his choice of the Locke Lane location: "River Oaks is more distinctively American than it is Texan. The block that we were on is like Ozzie and Harriet's house, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney's; it's Andy Hardy country." The ingredients of Terms of Endearment don't mix easily, and its uniqueness is such that you can't just slip into it like an old coat. Don't expect to be overwhelmed from the first moment. Instead, just relax and be slowly drawn into its spell. By the time it's over, you'll know you've seen a fine piece of filmmaking and shared a rare emotional experience. Marp's, the National Bar ot Texas, will light up the Montrose Community Christmas Tree On Sunday, December II, 5:30pm Foe a FREE SHOT ... Bring yout homemade ot other Christmas decorations to the bar by Thursday, net. 8 — o — o — NIGHTLY HAPPY HOUR lOPM TILL 12:30AM Naturally 1G22 Westhei mer-528-8851-Nta> DJ Wayne Barton, Hot! Hotf Hot! —^— __________—^^^— |
| File Name | uhlib_22329406_n162_014.jpg |