Crappy film

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

That's what it will take to pick up on all the details.None of this drama would have happened if Aurora and Emna would have made smart decisions.Aurora was a narcissist and control freak, but she was right to tell Emma to choose a more stable man than Flap. However, if Emma had listened to her mom, Aurora wouldn't have ended up with 3 beautiful grandchildren.Emma was annoyed growing up with narcissistic, controlling Aurora and married the first man who looked at her twice. Then Emma proceeded to have more children than Flap was intetested in having. Emma took too long to notice that Flap was his own kind of narcissist who thought he could cheat on her with his young female college students (using his teaching job for "access"), while she slaved away carrying the heavy load with 3 kids at home. Finally catching Flap practically in the act, Emma moved back home with the kids to her mom's house in Houston. What Emma SHOULD have done was take advantage of her mother's wealth and get a college degree and find a WORTHY husband. Aurora certainly would have been happy to pay for Emma's college because Emma was her only child and Aurora was a wealthy widow and enjoyed having Emma living at home. There was no reason Emma had to leave home unprepared or marry an immature cheating jerk.Aurora also made bad decisions in men after her husband died. Sure, Jack Nicholson's character was sexy and exciting, but he was obviously a perpetual playboy who was never going to settle down. Aurora had multiple men interested in settling down with her. The tall fellow could have been a good choice. But Aurora didn't want stability apparently. I would have thought the astronaut probably had multiple STD's and was a narcissist who would talk about his glory days until he died. But Aurora made a play for the astronaut and demeaned and humiliated herself in the process several times. Her grandchildren would have benefitted more had Aurora made a stable choice in one of her many viable suitors other than the astronaut. But Aurora was selfish and immature. But I enjoyed Jack Nicholson's character in the movie and he definitely added a lot of excitement and humor.Maybe if Emma hadn't married Flap and put herself through the ringer moving every few years, and constantly worrying about who Flap was cheating on her with NOW, while she did all of the grunt work around the homestead with the children, she might not have gotten cancer. The children got short shrift in the movie being depicted as burdens. Emma was overburdened because Flap hardly helped even when he WAS home, and she was distracted wondering who Flap was porking, so she acted like the kids were secondary. Yet when Emma moved back home it seemed Aurora was finally going to give the children the adoration and attention they deserved. Maybe Emna was just too distracted by Flaps flops and their financial troubles to fully enjoy her children. She could have considered working and having fewer children to balance out their finances, but Flap would have continued cheating anyway - he just would have been able to buy nicer clothes and drive a nicer car WHILE he cheated. The one who really had it good was Aurora, who was gorgeous, smart and classy, married well so that when her husband unexpectedly passed she lived comfortably, had a maid and a cook, made wise decisions with her money, didn't have any expensive vices, had plenty of worthwhile suitors, and her daughter became a baby factory producing multiple grandchildren for her to enjoy and their father, Flap, had no interest in remaining in their lives in a big way so that Aurora could have custody of them. Of course Flap was relieved when Emma passed because then he could hit all that young stuff at his teaching job without looking over his shoulder (plus maybe he could finally go after Emma's BFF, at least for one night - which is about as far ahead as Flap was ever able to think). The dumb thing Aurora did was waste one minute trying to get serious with the astronaut. In the end, he finally came through for Aurora, but it took a long time and can a leopard really change its spots? She will always have to be checking his sports car for foreign panties, and what will Garrett do when Aurora really starts aging and losing her looks and when the hrandchildren get older and really need hands on help with big issues? Will Garrett stick around? And do Aurora and Garrett ever actually marry? Does he make a tangible commitment to her, or can he sell his house and move on at any given moment? What are the grandkids going to think of Aurora when they realize she isn't married to Garrett and that "Grandpa Garrett" is just a horny neighbor and has-been astronaut with a drinking problem?If only Emma had stayed at home with her mom and gone to college, married better, and Aurora had married a stable suitor. Emma might not have contracted cancer, may have had kids with an honorable man, and Aurora could have a stable home for those grandkids to come visit and Emma may have been able to live nearby in Houston with her husband and kids.I think the moral of the story is that bad choices in men damage lives and peripheral lives..

Life is a gap between what we expect to happen and what really occurs. Aurora doesn't accept the gap and she closes herself in her "daughter & home" micro-world. Life turns up to be more cruel to her than the average, but she proves to be ready and faces all obstacles that come with outstanding integrity and brave. So, accept the gap but bé ready. Memmorable Shirley MacLaine in a universal classic movie.

This story is about ordinary people like us...who living a normal life or a real life...whats it's about...because this movie was crowned by Oscar and of course Shirley & Nicholson....each single movie of Nicholson have an special Midas touch, changing in a simple character on a big acting a few can be comparing Nicholson nowadays....Then this movie had a special treatment by the people who love this kind of story where they...laughing...crying...suffering and fighting for life like anybody else!!!

If it's possible to make watching this dismal film any worse: my review may contain spoilers.There are no likable or even comprehensible characters in this film to relate to or identify with. They are all shallow people whose banal lives bear no examination. None of them learn anything during the course of the film, and neither do we.Sadly there isn't much of a story either. A girl is born, lives an unremarkable life and dies young. I cheered when she finally died and hoped all the other characters would die too.Possibly this film is a subtle observation of what the empty lives of narcissistic people are like - perhaps, as such, it is intended to be boring and obscure, in which case it is a clever work of art and may serve as a warning to us all.My warning, though, is: don't waste your time.