Python Hyena
The Evening Star (1996): Dir: Robert Harling / Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Juliette Lewis, Bill Paxton, Miranda Richardson, Jack Nicholson: Enlightening sequel to Terms of Endearment expressing the dusk of life. Shirley MacLaine reprises her role with many new family trials. She visits her son in jail realizing that the brownies she brings are always thrown away. Her daughter quit school and caught having sex with her boyfriend. She decides to see a shrink at the forceful request of her maid. This leads to fornication and a sense of freedom. Screenplay is disjointed and overuses the death theme. We are not as moved by the conclusion as we should be. Director Robert Harling does a fine job at continuing this family and is backed with beautiful photography. MacLaine holds strong as a woman needing a break from routine responsibilities. Juliette Lewis plays her daughter who aims to be an actress. Miranda Richardson plays a nosy neighbor whom MacLaine dislikes because she is closer to her daughter than she is. Bill Paxton plays a shrink with a showgirl mother. Their affair is predicted but her dealing with it is right. The one complaint is that Jack Nicholson merely makes an appearance here and it seems rather tacked on. With a tremendous ensemble cast this makes for a worthy followup to Terms of Endearment with themes regarding age and legacy that allow the star to shine. Score: 7 ½ / 10
Diana
Terms of Endearement is one my my favorite movies. Evening Star was entertaining, but not as good. (Some of the situations seemed contrived) But....The scene at the end when Aurora is surrounded by her family during her last moments was very touching to me. My grown daughter was watching the movie with me and I eased into the kitchen to weep, and I, slightly embarrassed, told her I was having a "mommie moment." I saw this film on TV not too long after my own mother died. She would have loved to have gone that way,peacefully, at home, with her family around her. Me too, for that matter.
paxtonjm
While Shirley McLaine remains ever the strong willed Aurora, what makes this film wonderful is the fact that she continues her relationship with her grand children much as she did with her daughter, and somewhere along the way in both movies the children come to realize that while she may make you want to bang you head against a wall, there isn't anyone that loves and supports you more! I have an even greater respect for my mother and the education she gave me.Yet Aurora still manages to make the same mistakes we all make. Love is not an easy road traveled.This movie brings humor to that road, tears just like the original movie. I will agree the airplane scene was over the top, but I loved the scene with Jack Nicholson on the beach with the car going through the surf. I have never read the books, but now I really want to.One interesting fact - almost every star in this movie is a daughter or son of someone in Hollywood - Teddy was Patty Duke and John Astin's son. Tommy's wife is Cary Grant and Diane Cannon's daughter, Teddy's wife is someone from Jefferson Airplane's daughter. Even Lewis has an acting father - although she has made her own name in the business.
Laura1229
This movie had two major problems to contend with: being a sequel and being an adaptation, and the two problems were very related. First of all, "Terms of Endearment" the novel and "Terms of Endearment" the movie have huge differences. (Garrett Breedlove isn't even in the book and Rosie was married with several children.) What I think is great about "The Evening Star" is that it tries to hold true to the book and the first movie. Perhaps most importantly, it shows how important Hector and Rosie were in Aurora's life. As a fan of both the books and the first movie, I was happy to see how well this movie brought them all together. It's one of my favorites.
AD
