Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.
It rates a resounding yes because it doesn't insult our emotional intelligence. [23 Nov 1983] Read full review
Terms of Endearment is the rare commercial picture that sets audiences to laughing hysterically and crying unashamedly, sometimes within consecutive seconds, and then shoos them out of the theatre in contented emotional exhaustion. [23 Nov 1983] Read full review
No film since Preston Sturges was a pup has so shrewdly appreciated the way the eccentric plays hide-and-seek with the respectable in the ordinary American landscape; no comedy since Annie Hall or Manhattan has so intelligently observed not just the way people live now but what's going on in the back of their minds; and finally, and in full knowledge that one may be doing the marketing department's job for them, it is the best movie of the year. Read full review
This is a wonderful film. There isn't a thing that I would change. Read full review
Lopsided comedy turned tearjerker, saved by excellent performances. Read full review
James L. Brooks's clever and witty cry-a-long which has as many guys pretending not to cry, as women unashamedly sobbing. Read full review
Teaming of Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson at their best makes Terms of Endearment an enormously enjoyable offering for Christmas, adding bite and sparkle when sentiment and seamlessness threatens to sink other parts of the picture. Read full review
Terms of Endearment is a funny, touching, beautifully acted film that covers more territory than it can easily manage. Read full review
There's not enough substance to support the sentiment of this longish comedy-drama. Read full review
The dual-track plot, with constant cutting between mother and daughter, seems less an attempt to establish meaningful parallels between the two stories than the nervous twitches of a compulsive channel changer. Read full review