Back in Terms Of Endearment Shirley Mac:Laine made it quite clear the last thing
she wanted was to be a grandmother. The Evening Star now has her as a grandmother and great-grandmother and screwing up as bad with them as she
did with her daughter.
And there's that rivalry between herself and Miranda Richardson who was her
daughter's best friend. They just get on each other's nerves and Richardson has
a knack for saying the right thing always to the kids.
As for the kids Mackenzie Astin is married with two of his own and just seems to have no drive. George Newbern is a complete screwup who keeps getting
arrested for drugs. MacLaine visits him in jail and the visits go badly.
And Shirley strenuously objects to Juliette Lewis who runs off with her snake
of a boyfriend Scott Wolf. Lewis hates learning the hard way worse since it
turns out that tyrannical grandma is right.
The film is the story of these relationships and how it all works out. Some
other stand out performances are from Marion Ross as MacLaine's maid and confidante, Donald Moffat as her neighbor a retired general, and as another
neighbor Ben Johnson making his farewell film.
Jack Nicholson who a best supporting actor Oscar for Terms Of Endearment
makes another appearance as a retired but quite randy astronaut. In the first
film he showed he had more character than originally thought and keeps the
tradition here.
The Evening Star did not get as much rave reviews as Terms Of Endearment.
That's a pity because I think the same high standard is in this film as well.
