The Evening Star
by Robert Harling
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Actor: Ben Johnson, Bill Paxton, Juliette Lewis, Miranda Richardson, Shirley MacLaineDirector: Robert Harling
Cinematographer: Don Burgess
Editor: David Moritz
Editor: Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Writer: Larry McMurtry
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 129 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-02-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount Pictures
DVD Reviews of The Evening Star
DVD Review: Turgid, Episodic Mess Offers a Boisterous MacLaine But Little Else
Summary: 2 Stars
By the time Jack Nicholson shows up for about five minutes of screen time as Garrett Breedlove, this turgid 1996 sequel to 1983's Terms of Endearment has already slogged through two deaths, a psychotherapist with an Oedipal complex, and a lot of scrapbooks. The problems with this shamelessly manipulative movie are many, and they all begin with the inevitable premise that tough Texas matron Aurora Greenway can carry on without being challenged by her feisty daughter Emma. However, without Debra Winger's earthy grit counterbalancing Shirley MacLaine's flamboyant disapproval, the story seems to work in a vacuum. Much of the appeal and resonance of the first film came from how these characters dealt with life's unpredictable course and how James L. Brooks captured their idiosyncrasies with a refreshing level of honesty for a mainstream film.
These nuances are completely missed as Robert Harling takes over for Brooks and takes the episodic approach that seemed to work better in his screenplay for 1989's Steel Magnolias. Based on Larry McMurtry's sequel novel, the story picks up Aurora's story fifteen years after Emma's death as we see true to her daughter's final wishes, that the grandiose older woman has raised Emma's three children. Now adults, oldest son Tommy is in prison for drug dealing, while youngest son Teddy has become standard white trash who wants only to own a tow truck. That leaves granddaughter Melanie who has inherited her mother's independent streak as she struggles through a bad relationship with an aspiring underwear model to become a sitcom actress. Without Emma, Melanie picks up the slack for spats and so do two minor characters from the first film - Emma's best friend Patsy, who has become a wealthy divorcee constantly competing with Aurora, and Aurora's salt-of-the-earth maid Rosie.
The movie becomes a virtual traffic jam of personal problems orbiting around Aurora with the second half an endless series of dramatic climaxes. MacLaine does the best she can under the circumstances, but the rest of the cast is set adrift. Bill Paxton looks particularly lost as the psychotherapist in love with Aurora. Juliette Lewis uses her familiar off-kilter mannerisms as Melanie, while Miranda Richardson is forced to play Patsy on two notes - petulant jealousy and benign resignation. Nicholson's appearance is welcome, but he understandably looks like he wants to leave the minute he arrives to remind Aurora of her enduring appeal. Only Marion Ross and Ben Johnson acquit themselves respectably as Rosie and her husband-to-be Arthur. Except for MacLaine's work, this overlong mess is really unbearable to watch. The 2001 DVD offers no significant extras.
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