This ‘Star’ Doesn’t Shine As Bright As The Endearing Original

It’s akin to going to a family reunion and seeing people you haven’t had contact with in 15 years and then filling in all the new boyfriends, kids and others. That’s the feeling of “The Evening Star,” the second coming of Aurora Greenway, whose life and tribulations captivated us in “Terms of Endearment.”

With Shirley MacLaine reprising her Oscar-winning role to prickly perfection, this follow-up film will surely tug at the hearts of Aurora followers, but its episodic nature is not as likely to enthrall audiences as its heart-tugging predecessor. Unquestionably, this “Star” will shine brightest among an older, female audience who will savor Aurora’s life adventures, but lacking the big emotional burst of the former, this soap-operatic sequel is not likely to negotiate “Term’s” popularity. More discerning viewers will be downright rankled by its strident tendencies toward emotional melodramatics.

Unlike the daily soaps, you can’t pick this one up quite lickety-split. It takes awhile to learn the players.

As you already know, Aurora’s daughter (Debra Winger) has passed on with cancer, and what you perhaps didn’t realize is that Aurora has raised her grandchildren, with decidedly mixed results.

“Terms of Endearment’s” mother-daughter rivalry is now a grandmother-granddaughter tug of war as Aurora struggles to keep her feisty granddaughter, Melanie (Juliette Lewis) from “doing everything wrong in life.”

Then there are her grandsons: Teddy (Mackenzie Astin) who’s not ambitious enough for Aurora, and Tommy (George Newbern) who, break her heart, is doing time in the penitentiary. Even Aurora’s imperturbable front cannot mask the deep disappointment she feels in how her grandkids turned out.

Even worse, they resent her for it, especially Melanie, who has a much tighter bond with her mother’s old chum, Patsy (Miranda Richardson) who, as a blond nouveau rich socialite, is everything that Aurora despises and is, as she readily admits, her worst nightmare.

Force of nature that she is, Aurora leaves everything in her wake: bad blood, broken hearts, big grudges, but, best of all, undying love. While some of the story’s plot permutations fry a bit fast and are served somewhat slick-side up, screen-writer-director Robert Harling has done an overall solid job of cinematically shaping Larry McMurtry’s massive, rambling novel.

Despite some crammed dramatics, “The Evening Star” radiates with many rich emotional moments.

And, most of them, fittingly, are the result of Shirley MacLaine’s splendid performance as the indomitable Aurora.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “The Evening Star” Locations: Newport Cinemas Credits: Written and directed by Robert Harling, starring Shirley MacLaine, Bill Paxton, Juliette Lewis, Miranda Richardson, Ben Johnson, Scott Wolf, George Newbern, Marion Ross, Mackenzie Astin, Donald Moffat, China Kantner, Jack Nicholson Running time: 2:07 Rating: PG-13

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Duane Byrge The Hollywood Reporter