Rating: 
Summary: murphys romance
Review: A sweet happy ever after romance that everyone should watch. It's a delight to watch a film that doesn't have sex or violence in it but a hopeful and fullfiling movie that every age can watch without a problem.
I encourage everyone to get this movie, you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Flick For The Whole Family!!
Review: Everybody should love this movie! This is, pure and simple....a movie that is PURE and SIMPLE! And we should all bask in its simplicity! A breath of completely fresh air! We need more films like this one. It is excellent....even after 25 viewings! How COULD it be anything else but wonderful with these two charming leads....James Garner and Sally Field (two of my all-time favorites)! I love how the characters seem to really enjoy the every day things life has to offer .... Going to the movies, a bingo game, a ride in Murphy's old car, root beer floats, corned beef hash, the North Star [a nice moment in the film]. Aside from a couple of swear words, it's a good, clean movie. Probably the last of its kind. So enjoy it! My favorite Murphy dialogue...."I don't know why Emma took you in in the first place. I'd bed you down with the dogs. And I'll tell you something else mister...you might be a lot younger and stronger than I am, but you're about to get your a** kicked from here to the state line. And I'm wearing the boots that can do it!"
Rating:
Summary: Open your eyes to an exquisite film
Review: I cannot add much more praise than what has been said about this film, but I would advise film students, film instructors, and screenplay writers and teachers to study this film and add a proviso to their pedagogy that great filmmaking cannot BE TAUGHT. Imagine how many film schools, film students, and books on filmmaking and screenplays have been churned out since the nearly two decades that this film was produced, and ask yourself the question, why don't films today measure up the quiet brilliance of this fabulous work. The answer is plain. Inspired filmmaking, directing, acting, and genuine love for the medium and the audience cannot be taught or bought. Take my simple test: read and study Robert Mckee, Syd Field, etc., go get your M.F.A. in filmmaking and go out and make your film. If it's even close to the quality of this film, I'll eat my DVD player. Like a rock music addict's ears that have been damaged by loud music and can't distinguish the nuances of sound, our post-millenium sensibilities have numbed us to the nature of cinematic, albiet commercial art. To paraphrase Alan Paton, "Cry the Beloved Medium."
Rating:
Summary: murphys romance
Review: i first viewed this movie at the tender age of 12 and though i wasn't aware of the slight sexual undertones of the movie at the time i was aware of the fact that it was a good movie. excellent acting by both garner and fields. a movie that has stood the test of time. it was good then and 15 yrs. later it is still good. gotta see this one you will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: how could you not like it??
Review: i first viewed this movie at the tender age of 12 and though i wasn't aware of the slight sexual undertones of the movie at the time i was aware of the fact that it was a good movie. excellent acting by both garner and fields. a movie that has stood the test of time. it was good then and 15 yrs. later it is still good. gotta see this one you will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Romantic, funny, wonderful
Review: I probably wouldn't be too off base to assume that I'm one of the youngest, if not the youngest, person to submit a review for "Murphy's Romance". Not too many people under 20 years of age have heard of it, and that is a shame. It's probably one of the ten best love stories of all time. And it's not spectacular in its scale, not bogged down with style, and not given to flights of fancy that promote Oscar bait monologues. "Murphy's Romance" is, on the other hand, simply... simple, realistic, loving of its characters, and full of wit that gives the film a sense of style not encased in camera work. It also has one of my favorite characters in any movie ever: Murphy Jones, played with the kind of wit, charm, and life you see expressed by very few actors by James Garner. Murphy is not just the title character, but he is the delicate string that holds the entire movie together. His expressions in every scene display the wisdom and slyness of his character, and the way he looks at the Sally Field character should be an acting template for any actor playing in a love story: He gazes at her; he doesn't stare. He doesn't search her eyes for answers to corny questions. There is nothing cliched about this character. He's just real.The plot of the film is a simple one. Movies like this are never really about their plots so much as they are about their characters. Emma Moriarty is a single mom who grew up on a farm, knows horses and hard work, and who moves out to the country to fix up a ramshackle old house and barn to start a business of boarding and training horses. Her son Jake is played by 80s child star Corey Haim, who plays his role somberly as a boy who misses his dad and is kind of clueless as to the workings of this new life. He's just a normal kid who grew up in the city and finds it odd that his new school doesn't have a single computer. This role could have been a thankless one if Haim didn't play it so well. His eyes express the weight of his small world on his shoulders, and we can see that weight lifted in the presence of his dad (Brian Kerwin) and when talking to Murphy. Emma happens across Murphy Jones' drug store when advertising her business. Murphy is all for free enterprise, so she posts her sign in his window and walks in. In this first conversation, we already know that these two are destined to fall in love by the film's end. That's how these movies work: 1) We introduce the main characters to each other and know from the start they are compatible. Step 2) We watch as a series of wrenchs are thrown in the works to put off this revelation between the characters themselves. In the case of "Murphy's Romance", we are given a simple wrench, not a series of ridiculously over the top occurrences that scatter our radar of reality. The arrival of Emma's ex-husband Bobby Jack (Kerwin) makes for enough realistic encounters and quick dialogue exchanges for every implausible moment in today's teen dramas. That's enough about the plot. As I said, love stories are not about their plots. The few smart love stories that have come out of Hollywood over the years recognize this and treat their characters with intelligence. "Murphy's Romance" has a main cast of wonderful performers who embody their roles with an almost improvisational realism. Sally Field is terrific as Emma, who we can see from the start has tenacity and a good work ethic ("I've worked hard for all these callouses!"), but also has an unwillingness to separate the men from the boys, which blinds her to the possibilities of loving someone new after her failed marriage. Kerwin has one of the tougher jobs in the film: He has to maintain the image of a scumbag ex-husband while still coming across as the kind of man we could see as charming. It's a difficult balancing act, but it's one that he pulls off nicely. Haim, with the eyes of a soulful man trapped in a boy's body, is very good. But James Garner, who earned a Oscar nomination (he should've won) for this role, owns this movie from beginning to end. "Murphy's Romance" is one of my favorite films for all the reasons I've mentioned: Great performances, wit, and most of all, love. Garner and Field play their characters with just the right pitch in every scene, and when we finally do come to the closing scenes of the movie, everything rides on them. The last scene, brilliantly photographed, is written in such a way that it would make or break the film. As it stands, it is probably one of the most loving scenes in film history, with the two leads nailing every note. It reaches out of the screen and makes us grin from ear to ear; it touches our heart in a way that few films do, and it's a testament to the true power of film: It makes us want to fall in love for the first and last time in our lives.
Rating:
Summary: Murphy is a character to look up to in a great film.
Review: James Garner as Murphy is smart, confident, capable, wise and one class act. He is truly one of the greatest characters of all-time. This film is very romantic and the ending is brilliant. I have shown it to four friends and they all fell in love with the movie. This is a subtle movie and if you like things obvious and over the top then you might miss the point of this one.
Rating:
Summary: Murphy is a character to look up to in a great film.
Review: James Garner as Murphy is smart, confident, capable, wise and one class act. He is truly one of the greatest characters of all-time. This film is very romantic and the ending is brilliant. I have shown it to four friends and they all fell in love with the movie. This is a subtle movie and if you like things obvious and over the top then you might miss the point of this one.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Charming
Review: James Garner plays, Murphy, a small-town store owner whose wife died several years ago. Into his life pop Sally Field and her son Corey Haim. Sally has recently divorced, no-good but nice guy Brian Kerwin, and is starting over by buying a horse farm. She doesn't want to be alone and she doesn't know who to trust or who to be attracted to. Things get really complicated when Kerwin re-enters the picture and tries to settle in like he belongs there. James Garner was nominated for an Oscar for this role, and it's easy to see why. I've never seen a more straightforward, down-to-Earth, easy-going, likable character in a movie, without being a cliche. Sally Field is sassy but nice, striving for independence but confused, and unable to make her mind or know a good thing when she sees it. Corey Haim is quietly confused but completely likable and credible in his portrayal of a boy who loves both his parents while clearly seeing their faults. This is just a plain nice story, well-told and well-acted. It also has one of the best lines for a parent I've ever heard. When Corey Haim lets James Garner know that he noticed his father had cheated at cards, everyone expects Garner to give the boy a lesson in honesty in morality. Instead, he says the perfect thing: "Take after him or not; the choice is yours." He knows cheating is wrong, the boy knows it's wrong, and they know each other knows it's wrong; the important point is that taking after one's father is a choice, not fate.
Rating: 
Summary: Not "just" a chick flick
Review: Recently-divorced Emma Moriarty (Sally Field) picks up and moves to Arizona with her 13-year-old son Jake (Corey Haim) to start a horse boarding and training business. Love is soon in the air when the local pharmacist, Murphy Jones (James Garner), brings a horse to her ranch but a wrench is thrown into the works when Emma's lazy, no-good ex-husband Bobby Jack (Brian Kerwin) shows up on her doorstep. Good mix of drama, romance, and comedy... not your typical chick flick.
Staci Layne Wilson
Author of Staci's Guide to Animal Movies
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