Terms of Endearment

The widowed Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) rebuffs all suitors who are washed up to her doorstep in the Texan suburbs, preferring to invest her time and energy in her daughter, Emma (Debra Winger). While the intense bond may come from the heart and with good intentions, it sometimes seems to distance the daughter. Emotionally and geographically. Emma follows her husband's job offer with their children to Iowa. Aurora finds fleeting comfort in the company of the carefree ex-astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson), until a tragedy reunites mother and daughter.

The relationship between Aurora and Emma is difficult, heated, loving, sacrificial, and exhausting. Their love for each other is unconditional. The story of the two spans 30 years in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and tells of failed marriages, hopeful/hopeless affairs, and the loneliness of those left behind. The protagonists struggle with the challenges that relationships bring, those that are not chosen, and the frustrations about those that are chosen.