"Terms of Endearment" (1983) - Stays dear

Chick flicks often get a bad name and sometimes deservedly so. Often the female characters spend most of their time obsessing over every minutiae of small village life with their small minds occupied with nothing but quilting patterns and 'will he call' dilemmas. The male characters (if they make an appearance at all) are usually portrayed as shallow, insincere and 1-dimensional idiots.

I am so happy to report that none of those stereotypes hold true in this Best Picture Winner! The writing is superb and captures all the nuances and subtlety of the central mother/daughter relationship that leaves most outsiders utterly bewildered.

The supporting male cast, Jeff Daniels, Jack Nicholson and John Lithgow, while sometimes flawed, are completely believable and well-realised characters who play an important role in their women's lives, but are not central to their well-being or happiness.

Overall it is a picture about strength and the 'slings and arrows' we endure because we have to; but in the midst of the melodrama, there are moments of beautiful sweetness and levity between the cantankerous and repressed Aurora and her seemingly long-suffering daughter, Emma. Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the amorous astronaut is the stuff Oscars are made of, but in true chick flick style it is the female protagonists played with such pathos by Shirley Maclaine and Debra Winger that steal the show.

Whether it is Aurora arguing with her doctor at the head of a table full of male admirers about how old she actually is or Emma having a 'mother meltdown moment' in a supermarket, the ladies are always true to their characters and very true to life.

Mat scored it 85 and I gave it 83 and although it was heart-wrenching at times, it is easily one of the more rewatchable Oscar winners we have encountered to date simply for the care and beauty it takes and shows between these wonderful characters.