User reviews

James Garner and Sally Field make an appealing couple involved in a May-December romance. This theme has been done before in films but Garner and Field bring a freshness that gives the production credibility as they form a casual friendship that intensifies as time passes. Field's troublesome and immature ex-spouse shows up to try to win her back and his presence causes an awkward, strained triangle that resolves itself in due course. Garner is a relaxed middle-aged pharmacist who is comfortable with himself and takes each day as it comes. Field is determined to make a new life for herself and her son as a horse trainer in a small Arizona town. Brian Kerwin and Corey Haim as Field's ex-husband and young son are good in supporting roles.

Emma Moriarty (Sally Field) is a divorced 33-year-old, mother to Jake (Corey Haim). She moves to the small town of Eunice, Arizona to fix up a run down horse ranch and train horses. She befriends the local druggist Murphy Jones (James Garner). Her ex-husband Bobby Jack Moriarty (Brian Kerwin) shows up and she lets him stay. He promises to be better but he continues to be a thieving cheat. The two men starts competing for Emma.

This is better than most May to December romantic movies. Garner is utterly charming. The beauty is their hesitation. The characters know their age difference and keep pushing away the romance. Sally Field is just as charming. Her horse riding is probably the most impressive thing in the movie. Garner and Field make an adorable couple despite their age difference.

Sure, this is a romantic comedy, but I wouldn't call it a chick flick. It's a great story, and all the principals work effortlessly towards making the film just downright entertaining.

Garner is at his best as an understatedly charming small-town pharmacist who becomes entangled in the life of a fiercely independent single mother with a deadbeat ex-husband. Field hits all the right notes with her character, but I can't tell if she's stepping back, or she just doesn't know how to play against Garner's lackadaisical style. Brian Kerwin gives his best screen performance as her ex, and sure, he plays a deadbeat, but he just oozes sex appeal.

I love this movie. I have watched it numerous times, and I still love it! It is one of those "feel good" movies that we seldom see anymore. No violence, no sex, no "strong language", etc. Just a strong woman, and a strong man, gradually falling in love. No negatives at all. If you want to watch a pleasant movie, and go to bed feeling happy, watch this. James Garner and Sally Field both play very non-Hollywood types, and we love them all the more for it. (Watch for the scene where they are dancing - it is hysterical!)

A low-key romantic comedy that pairs Sally Field with James Garner, and proves that the two actors have a great deal of chemistry together.

Sally Field is a newly-divorced mom setting up house with her son. Garner is a good 'ol boy who takes a hankering to her and promises to be a positive male influence. The doofus stud of an ex-husband makes a nuisance of himself. Guess who Field winds up with?

The film rides along harmlessly enough on the personalities of its two leads.

Won Oscar nominations for Garner and its cinematography.

Grade: B+

She might have been the auctioneer's assistant, with no lines.

Murphy's Romance is a pleasant easy to take movie about a May - October romance between widower James Garner and younger divorcée Sally Field. It's set in modern day Texas and it moves with grace of a gazelle and the speed of a Galapagos tortoise. And that's not meant in a negative way.

Sally Field with the ink barely dry on her divorce from Brian Kerwin has moved to a small Texas town where she's now acquired a ranch which could use a lot of improvement. She's got her son Corey Haim in tow and they aim to start anew.

The first and best friend they make in town is 60 year old James Garner, the local druggist. He's part of a disappearing breed in that he owns his own pharmacy. Given the way things are 23 years after Murphy's Romance, Garner's store if it still is operating is probably part of chain now, even in small town America.

A steady reliable guy like Garner is all any girl could wish for, but ambling back into the picture is Kerwin who swears on a stack of Bibles he's a changed man. Why he's even a born again Christian.

The man knows how to ring her bell, but that's about all he's good for. In fact he furnishes his own proof before the film ends.

James Garner got his only Oscar nomination and I remember how much I wanted him to win that night watching the Oscars. It would have been great, but William Hurt won for Kiss of the Spider Woman. Murphy's Romance got one other nomination for cinematography, but it lost to the year's Best Picture, Out of Africa.

Murphy's Romance is a tender and touching story about a couple of mature people, one a bit more mature than the other finding true love. As Garner says this is his last love and Field responds this is her first. It's a film for romantics of any age.

There's some folksy charm in this film, and it's nice to see a leading male character (James Garner, Murphy) with gentle kindness among his virtues. I like Sally Field and her character is sweet too, but it was unfortunate that she's not as strong as she should be - her fledgling business is saved by Murphy, she's steamrolled by her annoying/shiftless ex-husband into letting him stay with her (grr), and then practically watches on the sidelines as the two maneuver around each other (huh?). It's obvious how it's going to turn out, and I wish the script had been better, though the last line was a nice touch. I have to say, Carole King's chipper soundtrack doesn't fit the vibe of the film very well either. If you like Garner or Field, this isn't an awful way to pass a little time though.

This may or may not be a chick flick. But who cares. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, Garner and Fields were two of my favorite television stars. So to see them together in a movie is a treat. While Garner's character is about 30 years older than Sally's, there is an undeniable chemistry between the two.

Also, there is a gentle, mature humor in this movie. It will bring a smile to your face without the gross physical comedy or profanity so prevalent in modern movies.

I have to admit that I am a romantic at heart, and this movie certainly hit home. If you like a film with a touch of romance, humor, and good performances by the lead actors, this is a movie you should add to you DVD collection.

Slightly better than average romance, well acted by Garner & Fields. Plenty of license taken to allow all these characters to end up inexplicably in BFE Arizona all at one time, but that's just the movies..... Garner and Fields are likable in their roles, and predictably, they end up with each other in the end, overcoming a 27 year old age differential as well as an obnoxious ex-husband who, for some bizarre reason, Fields tolerates living with her in her remote new home that she just crossed half of the country to find following their divorce. Fields' character just never seems to get what's going on, almost inviting, rather than deflecting, antagonism between the two male rivals. However, it's all warm and fuzzy at the conclusion, and it does leave you with a smile. 6/10.

Aging Garner makes the most of this showcase role, arguably among his best work. Sally Field is also appealing and believable as the much younger woman torn between romancing a ne'er-do-well but age appropriate peer or the warm-n'-fuzzy but still studly sexagenarian Garner. The dialogue exchanges between Garner and Field pop nicely and the direction is tight. Less polished is the plotline, which veers between the simplistic soap operatics in Field's life (boring and largely cliched) and the gradual courtship process between Garner and Field (sly, entertaining and winning).

Overall, though, this is a satisfying portrayal of may-december romance with the mush women will love and just enough conflict and tension to keep the men around, too. We all know the outcome before the start but it's still a gentle and loving rendition of the blossoming of true love.

Single mom (Sally Field), still hesitantly attracted to her ex-spouse (Brian Kerwin), finds love with an older gentleman (James Garner) in a rural Arizona town. Sally Field radiates so much good will, you like her here even after you realize she doesn't have much of a character to play. Veteran director Martin Ritt has always been exact at finding subtle nuances in backwater towns, yet Ritt is curiously uninspired with this modest, scratchy-and-smooth material; it's a sufficient-enough piece of filmmaking, despite a gratuitous bit from a slasher movie and a horrendously-written tryst in the hay barn. Field (once again caught between two paramours, as with "Kiss Me Goodbye") works nicely with Garner--and if the rest of the film had been as well-crafted as their last scene together, this might have been a more heart-rending picture. It has some ambling charm, but no center--and no driving force. ** from ****

Murphy's Romance is a great movie. My husband is not a big fan of Chick flicks and he loved it too. I think everyone should see it if they haven't already and I think there should be more films like this. I can't think of one that compares to it. I loved the setting in Arizona and the fact that she was working horses. You don't get too many films like this anymore. It was about starting over and finding love in an unexpected place. Sally Field and James Garner were spectacular. Murphy's Romance contained all the features a great film should possess. It was funny, yet serious and full of romance. It portrayed a mother and son who were close to one another. It was about making tough decisions and real life.

The writers Ravetch & Frank had a half dozen hits with Martin Ritt and two or three misses, the last hit being this picture. A romantic comedy, it careens between cuteness and contrivance, adding up to something cheesy. An attempt is made to surround the likeable leads, Sally Field and James Garner, with the supposed charms of small town life, buttressed by a community of dear friends, loitering in the wings, and summoned to center stage by the writers, whenever needed to keep the ball rolling. Field has a cute little son (Corey Haim), who needs a real man for a role model, instead of her flighty, fickle first husband (Brian Kerwin). And the considerable skills of all involved manage to keep this souffle aloft for 107 minutes.

This is a wonderful film. James Garner is past midlife, & Sally Fueld is approaching it. It's a true feel good romantic movie. I highly recommend it to all.

What chemistry was created between Sally & Jim in this lesson learning story. You know when a film is top drawer when you catch it by accident on cable and you find yourself drawn to stay right there and enjoy it's beauty and warm, down home, simple message. This is truly a walk down the lessons of life road and the simple things that pay such wonderful dividends.

The story is simple and yet special with it's well chosen cast and talented performances by all. This is a film that has no special effects, digital fancy do-dads or explosions and yet it makes you wanting more films like it. Hollywood could take a lesson from this gem of a movie.

This little unobtrusive film made 27 years old is about a romantic love story between a divorced woman and an elderly widower, its western scenery might has already lost its vigor as time goes by and pretty much old-fashioned from our current maxim of aesthetics to define a must- see classic, it certainly has its appeal for a joyful evening viewing even just for some light entertainment with two beautifully all-over-the-place leading performances.

An older-man-with-younger-woman romantic is nothing new and still now it has been considered a preferential relationship mode for our society to endure the time erosion (MODERN FAMILY is the role model here), but its morally self-consciousness could endanger the audience's acceptance and fortunately MURPHY'S ROMANCE has made itself a paradigmatic model against the 27-years age difference.

Two Hollywood old timers take on the leading roles, Sally Field, a two-times Oscar winner (for NORMA RAE 1979 and PLACES IN THE HEART 1985) in her heyday (who might not suffer from the same magnitude of deprecating panning like the limitedly-talented Hilary Swank), gives another passionate performance on which she tags a shade of sincere comedic flavor. James Garner, who has earned his first and only Oscar nomination so far, levels off as a constant warmth and charm generator, contrast to Brian Kerwin's viciously good looking ex-husband, which occasions a feasible option for Field's character and also minifies the happy-endings' corny predictability. Also the gone-too-soon Carey Haim is a gem in the film, in a world copious of repellent children, he is so adorable and rare to be seen on the screen nowadays.

Can be charming. Can also be annoyingly Hollywood Liberal preachy. In the end the former wins out, thanks to the usual good work of Garner and Field, plus a strong sense of place (i.e. definitely felt I'd spent time in Florence, Ariz by film's end). Give it a B minus.

Sally Field plays a single mother who moves to a small Texas town with her son (Corey Haim). She befriends the local pharmacist (James Garner), and a small romance starts to develop. It's quickly interrupted by her loser ex-husband (Brian Kerwin), who, despite her obvious signals against it, wants to get back together. Or he just wants to freeload on her, more likely. This is meant to be a small, gentle picture. It's somewhat enjoyable, but it never achieves the small gem status it so desperately wants. In the end, it's kind of dull and forgettable. James Garner received an Oscar nomination for his role. The Academy must have really had a lot of Rockford fans in it. The guy does not give an Oscar-worthy performance. He's an uninteresting character, really, and the fact that he's so much older than Field makes you not root for him to get the girl. Better are Field and Kerwin, though neither of them are exactly award-worthy, either (Field did, however, receive a Golden Globe nomination).