Well. This was a movie. A movie that I watched. And let me tell you how I felt about it. "Ugh. Blech. Harumph. Pfft. Snikt." The last one is just one of those onomatopoeia words from a comic book, but the fine point of it is that I didn't hate this movie as much as I thought I would? But I didn't like it either. Spoilers to follow!
The IMDB summary of this movie is as follows "Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love, and her daughter's family problems." Which, sure. That's accurate I guess. My plot summary would probably be something like "Uptight mother tortures and berates daughter who marries a real dud of a human being. The daughter-played by Debra Winger, goes on to suffer in her marriage and then die. The mother-played by Shirley Maclaine, dates a bunch of randos and then Jack Nicholson, and then doesn't die."
This movie had some real cameos though let me tell you. Danny Devito! John Lithgow! Who by the way, makes this face at one point in the movie and it's so hilarious I had to get a screen cap
And that I assume is why the movie was under 'comedies' in the Amazon library. But I guess Debra Winger was into his dumb face because they had a real weird affair. Which started by him buying her groceries. I generally feel like this movie treated everyone except Shirley and Debra(whose names were Aurora and Emma respectively) like set pieces. Emma's friend Patsy has like 4 lines in this whole movie. At the end when Emma is dying of cancer(I said there would be spoilers), Patsy is all, "You're my touchstone." Which would probably have more emotional weight if Patsy was a 3-dimensional character. But I digress-because for a movie made in 1983-and having won the award for best picture, it does feature 2 women as the lead roles, and they have way more lines than the men. And I guess I'd be happier about that if I liked any of the characters. As it is, my favorite character were probably Emma's younger son(not the older one, he was a real shit), who's little face was just so darned cute and so heartbreaking when she had to tell him she was dying.
I'm really curious what people thought of the Jeff Daniels(whose name in this movie is FLAP. That was honestly a human being's name. Flap.) and Jack Nicholson who played Garrett. My issue with Jeff Daniels is that he was a weasel. And at the end when she died, he didn't want his kids to live with him???? Like I guess at least he's honest in saying he'd probably fuck it up, but also, like...he doesn't even want his kids to live with him? They'd be hundreds of miles away? Ugh-and I thought, maybe Aurora was kind of a bitch to wait til the day before the wedding to tell her daughter not to marry FLAP(never marry a man named Flap! No one should have to tell you that! That is something all people should know instinctively!) but she was totally right. You shouldn't be having kids with a person who doesn't want to raise them if you're not there. I guess that's just a personal opinion. And he was sleeping during her death scene! Isn't that just a testament to how shitty he is.
Anywho, I guess Jack Nicholson was the head-scratchiest for me. In the beginning he's just a washed up loser who chases younger girls. Actually my favorite people in the whole movie would probably be the 2 girls who dropped him off at his house one night and told him they thought he'd be a real hero, because he was an astronaut earlier on in his life-but that he turned out to be a huge disappointment. TELL IT!
But anyway, the movie has established that he likes younger ladies, and then he's into Aurora even though she's 100% cray cray. Side note I really couldn't stand her wardrobe in this movie. Everything she wore looked like a doily had sex with a bed skirt. My favorite part of their relationship was when they grabbed each other's butts at the airport. I don't know, this movie is weird. Oh and the thing I forgot to mention where Aurora has a ton of suitors who have dinner at her house all the time! It's super weird!
To summarize, if I'm being honest-I wonder if this movie would've won best picture if Emma hadn't died. Like if this had just been a movie about a mother and daughter living their lives, would anyone have thought...ART! I doubt it? I mean-listen, I think Gilmore Girls did it better, but what do I know!? I kinda wonder if this movie is anything like Beaches(which is another movie about 2 women who are very close and then one dies tragically...spoiler? but also-I'll never know that either because those movies just aren't my thing and also Beaches didn't win Best Picture).
The IMDB summary of this movie is as follows "Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love, and her daughter's family problems." Which, sure. That's accurate I guess. My plot summary would probably be something like "Uptight mother tortures and berates daughter who marries a real dud of a human being. The daughter-played by Debra Winger, goes on to suffer in her marriage and then die. The mother-played by Shirley Maclaine, dates a bunch of randos and then Jack Nicholson, and then doesn't die."
This movie had some real cameos though let me tell you. Danny Devito! John Lithgow! Who by the way, makes this face at one point in the movie and it's so hilarious I had to get a screen cap
And that I assume is why the movie was under 'comedies' in the Amazon library. But I guess Debra Winger was into his dumb face because they had a real weird affair. Which started by him buying her groceries. I generally feel like this movie treated everyone except Shirley and Debra(whose names were Aurora and Emma respectively) like set pieces. Emma's friend Patsy has like 4 lines in this whole movie. At the end when Emma is dying of cancer(I said there would be spoilers), Patsy is all, "You're my touchstone." Which would probably have more emotional weight if Patsy was a 3-dimensional character. But I digress-because for a movie made in 1983-and having won the award for best picture, it does feature 2 women as the lead roles, and they have way more lines than the men. And I guess I'd be happier about that if I liked any of the characters. As it is, my favorite character were probably Emma's younger son(not the older one, he was a real shit), who's little face was just so darned cute and so heartbreaking when she had to tell him she was dying.
I'm really curious what people thought of the Jeff Daniels(whose name in this movie is FLAP. That was honestly a human being's name. Flap.) and Jack Nicholson who played Garrett. My issue with Jeff Daniels is that he was a weasel. And at the end when she died, he didn't want his kids to live with him???? Like I guess at least he's honest in saying he'd probably fuck it up, but also, like...he doesn't even want his kids to live with him? They'd be hundreds of miles away? Ugh-and I thought, maybe Aurora was kind of a bitch to wait til the day before the wedding to tell her daughter not to marry FLAP(never marry a man named Flap! No one should have to tell you that! That is something all people should know instinctively!) but she was totally right. You shouldn't be having kids with a person who doesn't want to raise them if you're not there. I guess that's just a personal opinion. And he was sleeping during her death scene! Isn't that just a testament to how shitty he is.
Anywho, I guess Jack Nicholson was the head-scratchiest for me. In the beginning he's just a washed up loser who chases younger girls. Actually my favorite people in the whole movie would probably be the 2 girls who dropped him off at his house one night and told him they thought he'd be a real hero, because he was an astronaut earlier on in his life-but that he turned out to be a huge disappointment. TELL IT!
But anyway, the movie has established that he likes younger ladies, and then he's into Aurora even though she's 100% cray cray. Side note I really couldn't stand her wardrobe in this movie. Everything she wore looked like a doily had sex with a bed skirt. My favorite part of their relationship was when they grabbed each other's butts at the airport. I don't know, this movie is weird. Oh and the thing I forgot to mention where Aurora has a ton of suitors who have dinner at her house all the time! It's super weird!
To summarize, if I'm being honest-I wonder if this movie would've won best picture if Emma hadn't died. Like if this had just been a movie about a mother and daughter living their lives, would anyone have thought...ART! I doubt it? I mean-listen, I think Gilmore Girls did it better, but what do I know!? I kinda wonder if this movie is anything like Beaches(which is another movie about 2 women who are very close and then one dies tragically...spoiler? but also-I'll never know that either because those movies just aren't my thing and also Beaches didn't win Best Picture).
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