Terms of Endearment (1983)
Director:
James L. Brooks
Tagline:
« Come to Laugh, Come to Cry, Come to Care, Come to Terms. »
Actors:
Aurora Greenway
Emma Horton
Garrett Breedlove
Vernon Dahlart
Flap Horton
Rating:
(71’034 votes)
(71’034 votes)
Quotes:
« Emma Horton: You both of you have beautiful eyes and your hair is too long. I mean, I don't care how long it gets in the back, but keep your bangs cut, OK, it's too long.
»
« Tommy Horton: That's a matter of opinion.
»
« Emma Horton: Just keep it short, alright?
»
« Tommy Horton: Are you getting well?
»
« Emma Horton: Look, I'm sorry about this but I can't help it, and I can't talk to you for too long or I'll get real upset. I want you to make a lot of friends. And I want you to be real nice to the girls 'cause they're gonna be real important to you, I swear.
»
« Tommy Horton: I'm not afraid of girls. What makes you think that?
»
« Emma Horton: Well, you may be later on.
»
« Tommy Horton: I doubt it.
»
« Teddy Horton: Why don't you shut up? Shut up!
»
« Tommy Horton: You shut up!
»
« Emma Horton: Ted, give me a kiss, come on. Tommy, you be sweet. Be sweet. And stop tryin' to pretend like you hate me. I mean, it's silly.
»
« Tommy Horton: I like you.
»
« Emma Horton: OK then, will you listen especially close?
»
« Tommy Horton: What?
»
« Emma Horton: Listen real hard?
»
« Tommy Horton: I said 'what'?
»
« Emma Horton: I know you like me. I know it. For the last year or two, you've been pretending like you hate me. I love you very much. I love you as much as I love anybody, as much as I love myself. And in a few years when I haven't been around to be on your tail about something or irritating you, you could… remember that time that I bought you the baseball glove when you thought we were too broke. You know? Or when I read you those stories? Or when I let you goof off instead of mowing the lawn? Lots of things like that. And you're gonna realize that you love me. And maybe you're gonna feel badly, because you never told me. But don't – I know that you love me. So don't ever do that to yourself, all right?
»
« Aurora Greenway: Do you have any reaction at all to my telling you I love you?
»
« Garrett Breedlove: I was just inches from a clean getaway.
»
« Aurora Greenway: Excuse me. It is after ten. Give my daughter the pain shot, please.
»
« Nurse: Mrs. Greenway, I was going to.
»
« Aurora Greenway: Oh, good, go ahead.
»
« Nurse: In just a few minutes.
»
« Aurora Greenway: Well, please – it's, it's after ten. It's after ten. I don't see why she has to have this pain.
»
« Nurse: Ma'am, it's not my patient.
»
« Aurora Greenway: [increasingly hysterically] It's time for her shot! Do you understand? Do something! All she had to do is hold out until ten! And it's past ten! She's – in pain, my daughter's in pain! Give her the shot, do you understand me?
»
« Nurse: You're going to behave…
»
« Aurora Greenway: [at the top of her lungs] Give my daughter the shot!
»
« Nurse: [walks away to give Emma the shot]
« Aurora Greenway: Thank you very much. Thank you.
»
Trailer:
Official Trailer
Runtime:132 minutes
Plots:
Widow Aurora Greenway juggles her own struggles with a new romantic interest while trying to sort out the emotional problems of her daughter who’s married to a philandering husband.
Aurora and Emma are mother and daughter who march to different drummers. Beginning with Emma’s marriage, Aurora shows how difficult and loving she can be. The movie covers several years of their lives as each finds different reasons to go on living and find joy. Aurora’s interludes with Garrett Breedlove, retired astronaut and next door neighbor are quite striking. In the end, different people show their love in very different ways.
Approximately ten years in what is the complex relationship between long widowed Houston-based upper middle class Aurora Greenway and her adult daughter Emma Horton is presented. There is general love and affection between the two, which is nonetheless characterized by Aurora’s overbearing and judgmental nature and Emma’s need for acceptance from her mother regardless. Aurora’s focus on being a constant influence on Emma’s life was strengthened upon the death of Aurora’s husband/Emma’s father Rudyard when Emma was an adolescent. Despite allowing a few ardent but rather undistinguished admirers into her life, Aurora did not actively pursue romance following being widowed, again turning that energy largely to Emma. This phase of Aurora and Emma’s story starts when Emma marries Flap Horton, of who Aurora openly disapproves as a man she considers ambitionless (as he wants to be an academic). Aurora and Emma’s relationship hits some further challenges when Emma, Flap and their children at whatever given time make moves away from Houston for Flap’s career advancement. Although Aurora and Emma talk frequently on the phone due to the distance, Emma, a stay at home mom, is largely left to deal with the issues in her and Flap’s less than perfect marriage on her own. Meanwhile, with extra time without Emma nearby and the hands of time slowly passing, Aurora eventually decides to take a chance and ultimately accept a date with her longtime next door neighbor Garrett Breedlove, an aging astronaut to who she never really even talked over the years due to their outward differences. While Garrett is miles away from the gentility that Aurora seems to admire in others and in herself, Aurora is conversely unlike most of the women Garrett pursues, he using his celebrity status to chase after nubile young women half his age.
