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.

I thought this film would merit a higher rating than it does here on the IMDb. It's a warm and touching, funny movie at times with Sally Field and James Garner portraying their characters with just the right amount of credibility. Not to sugarcoat this too much, I'm a guy, but I think the film hit the right notes for the kind of picture it was. There were only a couple scenes that I thought were forced, one was Murphy (Garner) and Bobby Jack (Brian Kerwin) deciding to dance together when they probably should have been coming to blows over each other's jealousy. The other was Emma's (Field) sneezing fit in the barn when Bobby tried to push his luck. It appeared that Miss Field never took sneeze lessons in acting school because it looked to me like she was about to crack up. If it was her way of putting off her ex, then I'll give her a pass. By the way, wasn't Bobby Jack just a perfect creep? Even the kid knew he cheated at cards.Now once I offer you this tip, I'm sure you'll take me up on the challenge. Just keep attentive during any modern flick and you're bound to see a product placement scene featuring Coca Cola. Usually it's a quick shot, but boy, the Coke folks got their money's worth here. There were at least six different Coke instances, more if you count a second glance within the same situation. This started out as a game between my wife and I after I first noticed how often the popular brand wound up in a movie, so it's second nature now. Just can't help myself.You know, Garner had a line that made me do some research. When he's invited to the movies, he mentions that he hadn't been to one since the Duke died. So I checked, and sure enough, John Wayne passed away six years prior to this film's release. Something else though, did you know Wayne's father was a pharmacist? Can you imagine that.

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.

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.