I'm not going to waste my time on the plot of this film because it isn't worth it.
James Garner is Murphy Jones, the title character, but he isn't the star of the film. That is Sally Field's Emma Moriarty. She is divorced from her cheating and stealing ex-husband, Bobby Jack (Brian Kerwin) but in the end, fate makes kicking him out of her new ranch house again easy. He impregnated a teenager and has young twin sons with her. This means that she is easily able to end up with Murphy, a widower who is much beloved in the town.
Garner was nominated for an Oscar for this role and he doesn't even do much. Still, the film wasn't that serious and I wasn't in the mood for anything that heavy, but this film also fails as a rom-com with only one funny scene in the whole film-the one where Murphy and Bobby Jack both are getting Emma to turn around and dance with them.
I didn't like that Emma tried to somewhat make things work with Bobby Jack. He cheats at poker, even when it is just a fun game with family and steals money from Emma's wallet and she barely causes a fuss about it. She also keeps urging Murphy to get remarried, never thinking that he likes her. I mean, why else would a guy buy a horse to get her home business going and stay over to eat her dinner every night, along with her son (Corey Haim) and ex-husband? Also noted, normally the woman is tight-lipped about her age, but in this case, it is Murphy who doesn't reveal his true age until the last line of the film. Spoiler Alert: he's sixty.
I thought the film was pretty well acted, not well enough for an Academy Award nomination and the film was also real, with a grimy set and dust everywhere because this is the desert after all. Sure, the film is filled with stock characters but that can work and it mostly does for this film. That being said, I've already almost forgotten about the film and that is never a good sign. A film should either be brilliant or awful, but I'd remember it regardless. A film should never strive to be mediocre, and that's exactly what this film is, mediocre. Grade: B
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