Plot

Widow Aurora Greenway juggles her own struggles with a new romantic interest while trying to sort out the emotional problems of her daughter who's married to a philandering husband.

Aurora and Emma are mother and daughter who march to different drummers. Beginning with Emma's marriage, Aurora shows how difficult and loving she can be. The movie covers several years of their lives as each finds different reasons to go on living and find joy. Aurora's interludes with Garrett Breedlove, retired astronaut and next door neighbor are quite striking. In the end, different people show their love in very different ways.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

Approximately ten years in what is the complex relationship between long widowed Houston-based upper middle class Aurora Greenway and her adult daughter Emma Horton is presented. There is general love and affection between the two, which is nonetheless characterized by Aurora's overbearing and judgmental nature and Emma's need for acceptance from her mother regardless. Aurora's focus on being a constant influence on Emma's life was strengthened upon the death of Aurora's husband/Emma's father Rudyard when Emma was an adolescent. Despite allowing a few ardent but rather undistinguished admirers into her life, Aurora did not actively pursue romance following being widowed, again turning that energy largely to Emma. This phase of Aurora and Emma's story starts when Emma marries Flap Horton, of who Aurora openly disapproves as a man she considers ambitionless (as he wants to be an academic). Aurora and Emma's relationship hits some further challenges when Emma, Flap and their children at whatever given time make moves away from Houston for Flap's career advancement. Although Aurora and Emma talk frequently on the phone due to the distance, Emma, a stay at home mom, is largely left to deal with the issues in her and Flap's less than perfect marriage on her own. Meanwhile, with extra time without Emma nearby and the hands of time slowly passing, Aurora eventually decides to take a chance and ultimately accept a date with her longtime next door neighbor Garrett Breedlove, an aging astronaut to who she never really even talked over the years due to their outward differences. While Garrett is miles away from the gentility that Aurora seems to admire in others and in herself, Aurora is conversely unlike most of the women Garrett pursues, he using his celebrity status to chase after nubile young women half his age.—Huggo

Widow Aurora Greenway and her daughter, Emma, have a strong bond, but Emma marries teacher Flap Horton against her mother's wishes. When the marriage grows sour due to Flap's cheating, Emma eventually splits from him, returning to her mother, who is involved with a former astronaut.—Jwelch5742

Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger) are both searching for deep romantic love. The film opens with Emma's early childhood, Aurora reveals how difficult and caring she can be by nearly climbing into Emma's crib in order to make sure her daughter is breathingonly to be reassured when Emma starts crying (after being woken up). After the death of Aurora's husband and Emma's father, Rudyard, Aurora and Emma develop an extremely close love-hate mother/daughter relationship as Emma grows up.

Skipping forward several years, Emma gets married immediately upon graduating from high school in the Houston area, to Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels), of whom Aurora so disapproves that she refuses to attend the wedding. Emma's best friend Patsy Clark (Lisa Hart Caroll) continues on to college, eventually becoming successful and rich in New York City.

Over the next few years, Emma has two children with Flap, a college professor who relocates the family to a university in Des Moines, Iowa, separating the family hundreds of miles from Emma's meddlesome mother. Emma later telephones to ask her mother for money when she is pregnant with her third child. Aurora, not knowing by the telephone call that Emma is already several months into her pregnancy, wants Emma to get an abortion. Emma's once-passionate marriage to Flap becomes strained, thanks mostly to his philandering. Emma eventually has a secret romantic affair of her own with a married small-town older banker, Sam Burns (John Lithgow).

Meanwhile back in Houston, Aurora remains celibate but cultivates the attention of several gentlemen in the area, some rather bizarre. However, she is attracted to her next-door neighbor of 15 years, the womanizing, alcoholic retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson). Aurora and Garrett eventually go on a lunch date, make love, and develop a tenuous relationship.

Emma returns to her mother's home in Houston after discovering her husband is having an affair with a young grad student named Janice (Kate Charleston). Emma's appearance along with her three young children makes Garrett uncomfortable, as he has been single for a long time. Flap telephones and she reluctantly returns home to Iowa, trying to reconcile with him. Unwilling to become a one-woman man, Garrett breaks up with Aurora, making her feel "humiliated."

Emma ends her relationship with Sam as soon as Flap accepts a new teaching position in Kearney, Nebraska. Although she does not want to, Emma agrees to relocate to further Flap's career. She soon discovers that Janice is attending the same college where Flap now works, realizing that Flap followed her to Nebraska. Emma angrily confronts Janice before taking daughter Melanie to the doctor's office so both can get flu shots. While administering the injection, Emma's doctor notices two large lumps under Emma's armpit. Although Emma is only in her 30s, the doctor orders a biopsy and discovers she has cancer.

To cheer her up, Patsy invites Emma to New York City for her first vacation without her children. However, after arriving, Emma feels out-of-place among Patsy's friends and returns home early to begin chemotherapy treatment for her illness. Her doctor soon breaks the news that the drugs she was taking did not have the desired effect, and that Emma will not survive her illness. Flap and Aurora remain by her bedside in the hospital for weeks. Although devastated and exhausted, Aurora is still very supportive and loving towards Emma. Garrett flies to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he surprises Aurora, who confesses her love for him. He issues his stock reply: "I love you, too, kid."

In a discussion in the hospital cafeteria, Aurora tells Flap bluntly that he does not have the energy managing a job, chasing women, and raising children. Patsy, who has no children of her own, wants to adopt Melanie, but Flap and Emma do not want their kids to be separated. Emma also doesn't want Janice to raise her children, so Flap, feeling like a failure as both a father and a husband, agrees that having them live with Aurora is best.

As Emma's time begins to run short, eldest child Tommy shows open resentment toward his mother due to circumstances such as social class, fights between his parents, and Tommy's perception of feeling unloved. Emma reassures her two sons, and, after an altercation with Aurora (she slaps him in the hospital parking lot for criticizing his mother), Tommy weeps in his grandmother's arms. Emma dies later that night.

Following the funeral, Emma's friends and family gather in Aurora's backyard for a memorial service. Garrett shows affection toward each of Emma's children and helps Tommy cope during the wake. The film closes on Aurora, sitting next to Melanie.