On one of the movie lists I randomly landed on the Internet,
this movie was ranked top of the tear-jerking movies. #2 on the list was "Kramer vs Kramer".
As a diehard fan of dramas, I finally watched both. I watched Kramer vs Kramer like a year ago - and I cried my eyes out. I rented Kramer vs Kramer first because I like both Hoffman and Streep than actors/actresses in "Terms of Endearment".
After watching both, I found Kramer vs Kramer more tear-jerking than Terms of Endearment. I think it's probably because every character of Terms of Endearment (except a few kids) had at least one gloomy (or unethical) part that made each of them more humane, but also less likely a subject of 100% sympathy - which all characters in Kramer vs Kramer received.
Nonetheless, acting of Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson were really great... especially of MacLaine and Nicholson - which rightfully they won the Academy awards for. MacLaine's acting was amazing...
But as shown in the poster, the movie is centered around Winger and MacLaine, a daughther and a mother. A mother who needs to be extraordinary and needs to have attentions. A daughter who wants simple things in her life but who can't.
A mother who needs the daughter's attention and care.
A daughter who had to deviate from simple happiness she wished for as she was pushed over the edge by her cheating husband and money... (although I still think she could've resisted)
Winger in the movie finds peace and a friend in an affair... but even that's short-lived as she was diagnosed with a cancer. Life's been unfair for her in the movie... But the movie saved a little bit of glory for her in her only sin of having the affair... Her husband was never aware of Winger's affair. To him, she was a woman of her life (once a love), a mother of his children and somebody who did nothing wrong.
Winger found her only justification of her unfortunate events in her only sin - other than her kids.
I felt pity for Winger in the movie, but I also felt the irony of how that pity came by - her death. Do I still think that I'd forgive unethical people if they die?
But, I was glad that she also made mistakes and she was unethical on some level as much as she was saved from possible humiliation out of it.
Not a movie that made me empathetic, but it was engrossing enough with the Winger's life and acting of MacLaine and Nicholson.
4/5
