Terms Of Endearment (1983) Paramount Pictures 📢 Director: James L. Brooks 💰 Producer: James L. Brooks 👫 Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow, Danny De Vito. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -56th Academy Awards: April 9, 1984. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -The Big Chill. -The Dresser. -The Right Stuff. -Tender Mercies. 📕 Plot summary: Emma Greenway is a young lady (DEBRA WINGER) who moves away from her overbearing mother Aurora (SHIRLEY MACLAINE) after Emma gets married to a man Aurora despises (JEFF DANIELS) and starts a family of her own in Iowa. Left alone in Texas, Aurora begins to reluctantly have sexual desires for her obnoxious next-door neighbor (JACK NICHOLSON). Emma's marriage later begins to falter after she suspects her husband may be cheating on her, and so she herself finds herself taking refuge in the arms of a married man (JOHN LITHGOW) who gives her all the affection she is lacking in her life for a brief period. One day whilst attending a routine flu jab appointment, Emma's doctor raises his concerns about a lump her discovers under her armpit which leads to Emma's health deteriorating. 💥 Standout scene(s): There are so many wonderful scenes but the one I always remember the most is in the grocery store when Debra Winger doesn't have enough money to pay for all of her shopping. After witnessing some unnecessary rude comments made by the clerk, John Lithgow steps in and offers to pay for her food whilst giving the clerk a piece of his mind in the process. -Sam Burns (JOHN LITHGOW): "You're a very rude young woman. I know Douglas from the Rotary and I can't believe he'd want you treating customers so badly." -Checkout Girl (JUDY DICKERSON): "I don't think I was treating her badly." -Sam Burns: "Then you must be from New York." 🔑 Facts: -The 56th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, it won 5: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay (adapted), Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson). -Second Best Picture appearance for Jack Nicholson and Danny De Vito (both in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest). -Third Best Picture appearance for Shirley MacLaine (Around The World In Eighty Days, The Apartment). -James L. Brooks won three Oscars for this film: Best Picture (as producer), Best Director and Best adapted screenplay. All thoroughly deserved in my opinion. 🙂 Personal opinion: It's the well-defined and fleshed-out characters in the film that really make it so great to watch. Not only that, but the actors in those roles. The screenplay is just exquisite (kudos James L. Brooks). So many brilliant one-liners. Shirley MacLaine earning an Academy Award for her role as the over-protective mother is definitely on form, especially in that scene where she goes into a real 'Karen' mode and screams at the hospital staff to help her daughter! Whereas Jack Nicholson (who surprisingly took third billing) also earnt the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in a role that flatters him a little bit. His rendition of 'Fly Me To The Moon' whilst being launched out of his open-top car and into the sea was one of the funniest scenes in the movie. Danny De Vito adds so much to the comedy part of the film with such a small role too. The storyline of Emma (WINGER) having the affair with the banker was morally wrong but also such a charming development in the storyline. And wait until the end of the film where Shirley MacLaine slaps the soul out of Tommy for being a mouthy little brat! WHOAH! Not going to lie, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this one again. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅DEFINITELY. 8/10

Review date: 06 April 2025