MacLaine's star still shines in an otherwise mediocre sequel
MacLaine's star still shines in an otherwise mediocre sequel
By Laksmi Pamuntjak-Djohan
JAKARTA (JP): The fundamental problem confronting The Evening
Star is the inevitable scrutiny it will come under in being
compared to its 1983 predecessor. Yes, sequels are a chancy
business at best. Terms of Endearment didn't only win five Oscars
including Best Picture, but Aurora Greenway also gave Shirley
MacLaine a character which redefined her career.
The Evening Star's opening credits attest to screenwriter-
director Robert Harling's awareness of this history. Michael
Gore's familiar Terms of Endearment theme plays softly over
pictures of MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jeff Daniels, rekindling
memories of that memorable upper class Houston family held
together by Aurora Greenway, the indomitable matriarch. Her
volatile relationship with her feisty only daughter Emma, as we
remember, ended up in a heart-tugging reconciliation when Emma
was discovered stricken with terminal cancer.
The sequel, again based on Larry McMurtry's novel, finds
Aurora 15 years older and little-changed. Still the same self-
absorbed, vain, jealous, good-hearted, and smart as a whip know-
it-all, she watches with horror how the three grandchildren she
raised have turned out. Tommy (George Newbern) is a sullen sort,
doing time in the local slammer for drug possession. Teddy
(MacKenzie Astin) is generally likable, but he lacks ambition and
is shacked up in a trailer with a girlfriend and their baby.
But the main focus is 18-year-old Melanie (Juliette Lewis),
who is a carbon copy of her rebellious, devil-may-care mother.
The relationship mainly consists of Aurora being strict but nice,
and Melanie pouting and yelling at her. She moves out. She moves
in again. Then she insists on running off to Hollywood with her
narcissistic, ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Bruce (Scott Wolf).
An unhappy Aurora is tricked by her loyal housekeeper Rosie
(Marion Ross) into seeing a young, air-headed therapist named
Jerry Bruckner (Bill Paxton). Little does she guess that Aurora
and Jerry will quickly jump into a September-May fling. Through
various trials and tribulations, Aurora tries to make sense of
her life by organizing photos and mementos into a scrapbook.
Relationships
While the key to Terms' success lay in its pitch-perfect study
of a contentious mother-daughter relationship, the creators of
The Evening Star are hell-bent on examining other relationships
taking place in Aurora's orbit. She reacts, but she remains a
fixed character, as constant as the evening star, so to speak.
So we have Aurora's friendship with Rosie, Rosie's romance with
next-door neighbor Arthur Cotton (Ben Johnson in his last role),
Aurora's rivalry with Emma's best friend Patsy Carpenter (Miranda
Richardson in a deliciously over-the-top performance), Melanie's
relationship with Bruce, and Aurora's strange relationship with a
former flame, General Hector Scott (Donald Moffat), who still
stops by her kitchen on a daily basis.
As with Terms, the first part of The Evening Star is racy,
laid-back and full of bawdy humor. Halfway through, it starts
killing off characters. Indeed, the boorishness of the grandkids,
the haphazard stringing of only marginally-related episodes, and
the way neighbors walk in and out of one another's houses, give
this film an unmistakable air of sitcom. Oh yes, and the not one,
not two, but three funeral scenes. After all, it's Harling's
screenplay which buried Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias, so he's
on familiar territory.
Astronaut
Not content to jerk tears with just a parade of funerals, the
film also brings back retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Jack
Nicholson) for a blink-and-you'll-miss-'em cameo. Although it
seems more like a visit to the set than anything integral to the
narrative, it is clear that the film refuses to end without him.
However, the balding flyboy with the killer smile makes the best
out of the opportunity; he seems both genuinely pleased to see
his old love, and genuinely unsure of how to interact with her.
There is so much affection and charm in those few scenes, that it
almost feels like 1983 all over again.
MacLaine gives another of her luminous, full-bodied, and open-
hearted performances -- one that she delivered to prickly
perfection in Mrs. Winterbourne and Postcards from the Edge. She
obviously has a blast returning to the role, and that obvious joy
is likely to bring an audience with her farther than the material
itself deserves. Watch her preening deliciously after she spends
the night with Jerry, smiling venomously as she catches Patsy in
a deception, and making overbearing motherhood her own personal
fiefdom.
Terms' clear focus allowed MacLaine a complete, effective
switch from comedy to pathos. Director James L. Brook's expert
human portraiture also made it possible for the audience not to
feel so manipulated. The Evening Star, however, tries to tackle
too much -- too many characters and too many years. The dialog
almost has a fluffy quality -- a slapstick or otherwise self-
satisfied feel that's alien to the bedrock goodness and humanity
of Terms. The overall result is a sense of haste, insincerity,
less honest affection for the characters, which is a great pity
given the exceptionally fantastic cast.
This is not to say, however, that this film doesn't include a
good deal of the human foibles that make any movie family
believable. And rather than presenting another of those
sickeningly sweet families, it has the courage to stand as a
proudly and honestly dysfunctional family.
Lest we forget, this film is also about aging. While we may
scoff at the silliness of Aurora's relationship with a man young
enough to be his son, these things, after all, do happen. Her
reconciliation with every one around her, including her arch
rival and nemesis, also proves that age inevitably brings a
certain hard-won wisdom. Her moments of quiet introspection,
too, are particularly telling of that aging process: the need to
explain her place in this world.
Thus, the film's unabashed celebration of the older actor is
something to be commended on its own. Indeed, why should a
MacLaine be relegated to playing any leading character's mother
when she is so clearly still a shining star?