THE EVENING STAR
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 4.0 Alternative Scale: ** out of ****
United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 12/25/96 (wide) Running Length: 2:08 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Sexual situations, profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Bill Paxton, Juliette Lewis, Miranda Richardson, Ben Johnson, Scott Wolf, George Newbern, Marion Ross, MacKenzie Astin, Donald Moffat, China Kantner, Jack Nicholson Director: Robert Harling Producers: David Kirkpatrick, Polly Platt, and Keith Samples Screenplay: Robert Harling based on the novel by Larry McMurtry Cinematography: Don Burgess Music: William Ross U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Big-time Christmas Day releases have a history of disappointing (remember THE GODFATHER PART III?), so it comes as no surprise that THE EVENING STAR, the follow-up to James L. Brooks' phenomenally-successful, Oscar winning, 1983 feature, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, is a bust. Essentially, this is a big-screen soap opera that tries too hard, too often, and too ineffectually to open the tear ducts.
To start with, let me freely admit that I'm not a great fan of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. It's a little too manipulative for my taste, and even the flood of strong performances can't completely redeem the pedestrian story. In many ways, THE EVENING STAR is cut from the same cloth, but there's one important difference: the skill evident in crafting the first film is entirely absent here. This time around, the performances are workmanlike, the screenplay (by STEEL MAGNOLIAS' screenwriter, Robert Harling, and based on the Larry McMurtry novel) is lifeless, and the direction (also by Harling, in his feature debut in this capacity) is confused.
A lot of leftovers are served around the holidays, and THE EVENING STAR has its share. Shirley MacLaine, looking suitably aged, is back as Aurora Greenway, as is Jack Nicholson as astronaut Garrett Breedlove in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. A number of other characters have the same names, but different faces. The three Horton children -- Melanie (Juliette Lewis), Tommy (George Newbern), and Teddy (MacKenzie Astin) -- have grown up, so it's natural that the actors have changed. Patsy and Rosie, on the other hand, were adults in 1983, so it's a little harder to explain why Miranda Richardson and Marion Ross have replaced Lisa Hart Carroll and Betty King. (I'd like to think that the original actors had the good sense not to do the sequel; in reality, however, they probably weren't offered the parts.)
Unfortunately, returning characters aren't the only familiar aspect of THE EVENING STAR, because huge chunks of the storyline have been recycled from TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, right down to the central family struggle. In the original, the love/hate relationship was between Aurora and her daughter, Emma (Debra Winger). This time around, the participants are Aurora (once again) and Emma's daughter, Melanie. The only significant difference is that Melanie doesn't have a terminal disease.
The re-tread plot goes something like this: Aurora is involved in an ongoing feud with Melanie, who's in a dead-end relationship with a would-be actor boyfriend (Scott Wolf). Melanie moves out, but, when she discovers that her boyfriend is being unfaithful, she moves back in. Meanwhile, Aurora takes time out on a regular basis to visit Tommy, who's in prison. And she watches with clenched teeth as Melanie pours out her heart to Patsy, rather than to her. When she gets trapped by a bout of depression, Aurora's busybody maid, Rosie, tricks her into seeing a therapist (Bill Paxton) with a mother-fixation. They sleep together, which leads to a series of contrived complications.
The entire film consists of marginally-related and largely- uninvolving episodes strung together. None of these really go anywhere, but we're not supposed to care. The film's producers think it's enough that we're with familiar characters in a familiar setting. However, the men and women populating THE EVENING STAR are caricatures of those in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. Cheap jokes and mawkish sentimentality abound here, and calling these characters paper-thin is crediting them with too much depth. The tacked-on ending, which takes place some six years after the main story, has only one aim: bring out the Kleenexes and handkerchiefs. It, like the bulk of the movie, doesn't work. In fact, not one of the "emotional" moments in this film provides a satisfactory catharsis.
For the most part, the acting matches the writing. Shirley MacLaine, who won an Oscar as Aurora for TERMS, is almost unwatchable. Miranda Richardson is painfully over-the-top, and Juliette Lewis gives her typical one-note performance. The normally-reliable Bill Paxton looks like he'd rather be chasing tornadoes. By the time Jack Nicholson appears (about one-hundred minutes into the film) to liven up the proceedings, THE EVENING STAR is long past the point of resuscitation.
Because of its poor construction and shockingly dumb script, even those who number themselves among TERMS OF ENDEARMENT's fans are likely to have serious reservations. Anyone who disliked the original, or who is offended by tearjerkers in general, will find this motion picture unbearable.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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