Yes, Debra Winger is wonderful. Yes, the almost always underrated (and then recent recruit from the New York stage) Jeff Daniels gives a heartfelt real performance as the unfairly disparaged husband. Yes, perennial film favorite Shirley MacLaine chews scenery in every way imaginable and is matched every step of the way by Jack Nicholson in the first of his "how far over the top will the director let me go?" performances . . . but the bottom line is how much tolerance do you have for a film mother-in-law who tells her daughter (Winger) that any husband (Daniels) who becomes the HEAD of the English Department at a major university (or ANY similar job at the top of his profession) is a "loser" because the job requires that the couple live in a city other than where the mother is living (and "catting around" with Nicholson).
Do you believe *anything* that woman is going to say in the rest of the film?
A generation or two of husbands and boyfriends have sidled up to their wives and girlfriends (in tears after the manipulative final hospital scene) and said how wonderful the mother-daughter love bond was. But it doesn't take a major cynic to wonder if it wasn't more in the hope of "getting lucky" than genuine enjoyment of the film.
There's nothing *wrong* with honest manipulation of emotions with idealized mother/daughter ties (OR father/son or even buddy/buddy - I've seen more grown men dissolved in tears after FIELD OF DREAMS or that straight teenage boy "stroke film" TOP GUN than I have women after TERMS OF ENDEARMENT), but the underlying relationship really OUGHT to be an admirable, healthy one. Many may feel that's what TERMS OF ENDEARMENT offers, but a healthy minority of us will beg to differ.
Do you believe *anything* that woman is going to say in the rest of the film?
A generation or two of husbands and boyfriends have sidled up to their wives and girlfriends (in tears after the manipulative final hospital scene) and said how wonderful the mother-daughter love bond was. But it doesn't take a major cynic to wonder if it wasn't more in the hope of "getting lucky" than genuine enjoyment of the film.
There's nothing *wrong* with honest manipulation of emotions with idealized mother/daughter ties (OR father/son or even buddy/buddy - I've seen more grown men dissolved in tears after FIELD OF DREAMS or that straight teenage boy "stroke film" TOP GUN than I have women after TERMS OF ENDEARMENT), but the underlying relationship really OUGHT to be an admirable, healthy one. Many may feel that's what TERMS OF ENDEARMENT offers, but a healthy minority of us will beg to differ.