Follows hard-to-please Aurora, looking for love and her daughter’s family problems.
This Oscar-winning classic with a laundry list of A-list actors is one that we still admire and revere today. When the film opens, Emma (Debra Winger) prepares to be a bride while her doting mother, Aurora (Shirley McClaine), displays her overt disapproval right up to the exchange of vows. While she never misses an opportunity to express her opinion of Emma’s relationship with Flap (Jeff Daniels), she also seems to have issues in the relationship department.
Things get progressively better and worse when Flap lands a teaching job, and Emma starts having babies. After two bouncing boys, Tommy and Teddy, Flap lands a teaching job and moves the family to Iowa. While things seem to be touch and go for Emma and Flap, another child is added to the fold, and Emma has to swallow her pride and ask Aurora for money while at the same time admitting she is pregnant with a baby girl from the never-do-well son-in-law Flap, who has also become the town whore. When Aurora finally agrees to send money, she also lets on that she has finally allowed longtime neighbor and astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson) to visit her bedroom by way of seeing her “Renoir,” the famous artwork that is near and dear to her heart. While the offer enamors Garrett, he still tries to play hard-to-get but eventually succumbs to Aurora’s sexiness and grace under pressure. After some time, though, Garrett starts to feel stuck in the relationship and gracefully bows out. When Flap tries to maneuver one last move for a coveted teaching job, Emma agrees. Before the transfer is fully processed, she realizes that Flap has moved to accommodate another woman outside his marriage. She decides it is over once and for all. Emma, who has pulled her side-piece into the mix, chooses to focus on letting Sam Burns (John Lithgow), a hometown, unhappily married man, have a piece of her heart.
Emma’s diagnosis of Breast Cancer months later is the turning point in the entire endearing story as she wrestles with saying goodbye to the children and making peace with Flap. It also bodes well for Garrett, who realizes that he and Aurora are both excellent for a second chance at love.
James L. Brooks does an excellent job setting this Oscar-winning production in motion. Not only does he do it with a star-studded cast, but the pairing of relationships is phenomenal and an integral part of its success that spans several generations. Please don’t deny yourself an opportunity to witness it firsthand with Paramount’s 2-Disc set, which includes a 4K Ultra HD™ Disc and a Blu-ray™ version. You won’t regret it.
Now available on 4K Ultra HD™
