Terms of Endearment

A possessive widow and her daughter spend thirty years locked in a bond that is equal parts love and friction, through the daughter's marriage, children, and affairs and the mother's own late romance. When the daughter falls seriously ill, the two must face the end of the relationship that has defined them both.

The film traces enmeshment and ambivalence across a lifetime and closes in anticipatory grief, showing how devotion and control can be the same gesture. It gives a therapist a long view of a mother and daughter who cannot quite separate. It won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama in 1984 and is adapted from the novel Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry.