Terms of Endearment

I am convinced this was made in the same spirit The Beastie Boys made "Fight For Your Right". This has to be a satire of cheesy, saccharine TV movies that people misread as a genuine melodrama. It is the only explanation for this movie's success. Because I refuse to believe I live in a world where this movie was made earnestly and honestly. I refuse to believe it was meant as it is delivered. I refuse. That would mean accepting that James L. Brooks intentionally and unironically wrote and directed a movie about the lives of a mother and daughter, exploring their relationship as well as their romantic entanglements, and made them and everybody around them unrepentantly insufferable and wholly lacking in any sense of self-awareness. It means that Brooks intended Shirley MacLaine's Aurora to be viewed as quirky and tempestuous, rather than what she is: shrill, abusive, manipulative, cruel, and judgmental, who does not respect boundaries or her daughter's autonomy. It means that Brooks intended Debra Winger's Emma to be viewed as a charming but tragically put-upon free spirit, rather than what she is: a selfish hypocrite who doesn't believe she's personally responsible for anything other than judging others (especially when she judges others falsely for doing things she herself is doing), and a needy co-dependent in an abusive relationship. It means that Brooks intended Jeff Daniels' Flap (what kind of name is that?) to be the heel husband that neglects and betrays his wife, instead of what he is: beleaguered, overworked, and badgered by a wife who is guilty of the crime she is accusing him of, with absolutely no proof, to the point where he decides he might as well make the accusation a reality. No, that doesn't absolve him of it, but at the point where Emma first accuses him of it, there is no proof, only her unfounded paranoia. It means that Jack Nicholson's Garrett is meant to be a charming scamp and a wild horse that needs to be broken with the love of a good woman, instead of what he is: an arrogant, self-absorbed, womanizing jackass, and a sex pest. It means that Brooks was under the incomprehensible delusion that any of these people would be enjoyable or sympathetic to spend over two hours with, instead of being people that, if you were stuck in an elevator with them, you'd try to find a way to throw them down it. It means that he made this gormless, plodding melodrama in that feels like a rejected TV-movie-of-the-week script with genuine intent. It means he deliberately selected the soap opera B-sides score that feels as corny as a Nebraska farm, and never supports the emotional beat of the scene. It means that he adapted a book written by a man about the relationship between two women, and never once considered the possibility of needing a woman's point of view on whether the screenplay felt even remotely authentic. If he really did all this intentionally, it is one of the grossest examples of directorial malfeasance I've ever seen. You don't assemble the cast this movie has and betray them at every turn like Terms of Endearment does. Not unless this is a satire. It has to be a satire. It has to be. This cannot be meant as delivered.