I am a heterosexual, red-blooded woman who hates "Terms of Endearment". There, I said it, and I don't care who knows. "Terms of Endearment" is one of those insufferable movies aimed for women, even though it is clearly written by men who clearly don't know anything about real women. It's also a disjointed, plot less, excruciatingly dull story with some of the most poorly written characters to ever disgrace the screen.
I didn't know which female protagonist I found more insufferable: Aurora (Shirley McClaine), an overbearing mother who clings to her daughter Emma (Debra Winger) like a leach but doesn't appear to actually love her. Aurora is one of those people who refuse to let go and let God, as evidenced where she happily wakes her sleeping baby daughter up because she's convinced that Emma has suffered "crib death". Emma is so sick of her mother's nagging ways, she marries the first loser who shows interest, much to her mother's chagrin ("You are not special enough to overcome a bad marriage," Aurora bluntly tells her).
Then there's Emma herself, who I desperately wanted to root for, having an overprotective mom myself. Emma could have been written with a certain amount of dignity, passion, and endearing insecurities and intelligence that emerge in spite of Aurora's crappy parenting. Instead, Emma is an immature, petulant, flighty ninny who goes from having a backbone of steel one moment to being a complete pushover the next. She firmly calls her ne'er-do-well husband Flap (Jeff Daniels) on his infidelity, and yet stays with the cheating bastard for no clear reason whatsoever. Not to mention Winger plays Emma the way one would a mentally unstable 3-year-old and who sounds she doing the world's worst Joan Cusack impression. I got the feeling her children would be like the type of kids who have to raise and clean up after their alcoholic parents.
I knew something was wrong when the only character I even remotely liked was Jack Nicholson's aging womanizer character. Considering that I don't even like Jack Nicholson, that's really something.
Worst of all, "Terms of Endearment" is responsible for starting the trend of manipulative tearjerkers that involve families coming closer because of death ("Stepmom", "The Family Stone", "One True Thing"). Not only is it reprehensible to treat death so lightly, but it is unfair to the audience. It's as if filmmakers are punishing them for not being emotionally invested enough in the characters by creating latent feelings of guilt by killing them off. And it's always with Hollywood Cancer, the type of cancer where vomiting and chemotherapy somehow never come into play.
I have nothing against chick flicks, I really don't. Just this one.
I didn't know which female protagonist I found more insufferable: Aurora (Shirley McClaine), an overbearing mother who clings to her daughter Emma (Debra Winger) like a leach but doesn't appear to actually love her. Aurora is one of those people who refuse to let go and let God, as evidenced where she happily wakes her sleeping baby daughter up because she's convinced that Emma has suffered "crib death". Emma is so sick of her mother's nagging ways, she marries the first loser who shows interest, much to her mother's chagrin ("You are not special enough to overcome a bad marriage," Aurora bluntly tells her).
Then there's Emma herself, who I desperately wanted to root for, having an overprotective mom myself. Emma could have been written with a certain amount of dignity, passion, and endearing insecurities and intelligence that emerge in spite of Aurora's crappy parenting. Instead, Emma is an immature, petulant, flighty ninny who goes from having a backbone of steel one moment to being a complete pushover the next. She firmly calls her ne'er-do-well husband Flap (Jeff Daniels) on his infidelity, and yet stays with the cheating bastard for no clear reason whatsoever. Not to mention Winger plays Emma the way one would a mentally unstable 3-year-old and who sounds she doing the world's worst Joan Cusack impression. I got the feeling her children would be like the type of kids who have to raise and clean up after their alcoholic parents.
I knew something was wrong when the only character I even remotely liked was Jack Nicholson's aging womanizer character. Considering that I don't even like Jack Nicholson, that's really something.
Worst of all, "Terms of Endearment" is responsible for starting the trend of manipulative tearjerkers that involve families coming closer because of death ("Stepmom", "The Family Stone", "One True Thing"). Not only is it reprehensible to treat death so lightly, but it is unfair to the audience. It's as if filmmakers are punishing them for not being emotionally invested enough in the characters by creating latent feelings of guilt by killing them off. And it's always with Hollywood Cancer, the type of cancer where vomiting and chemotherapy somehow never come into play.
I have nothing against chick flicks, I really don't. Just this one.