Cinematic Synchronicity: Moms, Sons, and fresh starts

I have a thing for Sally Field. There, I said it. Or, rather a thing for Sally Field circa 1976 to 1984, not the Boniva Sally Field. I mean, seriously, is there anything in the world cuter than Frog in Smokey and the Bandit? The answer, of course, is "no". Regardless, it's probably why Murphy's Romance was in my queue.

Field plays Emma, a tough single mom and horse trainer in this pretty obscure movie from 1985 starring a still-adorable Sally opposite a less-adorable but ruggedly handsome James Garner. Recently divorced Emma starts a new life with her young son (Corey Haim), faces some gender discrimination, befriends lovable liberal shop owner Murphy (Garner)...but when her exceedingly good-looking but no-good mustachioed ex-husband Bobby Jack shows up, she has to juggle his efforts to reconcile, Murphy's increasing interest (despite the three-decade age difference), and her duties as a mother.

Okay, sounds like a winner already, right? Well, it kind of was, despite the original soundtrack by Carole King and David Sanborn (yikes). The 80's got a lot of things right with movies, but synths and saxes over scenes of an Arizona horse farm is not one of them.

There were some problems; the stakes never seemed that high, everything kind of always seemed like it was gonna work out (it did). The bank never tries to take Emma's farm, Bobby Jack never acted like a total psycho, her son was a little too well-behaved. There's a kind of embarrassing dance hall bit when Murphy (Garner) and the ex-husband are competing for Emma's attention. It drags at points, but the scenery is so nice I didn't mind too much. The politics seemed a little shoehorned in. And I already mentioned the soundtrack.

But due to strong performances by Field and Garner and the fact that the quaint town, complete with soda shop/pharmacy, Elks bingo hall, and old-timey movie theater, was a place nobody would mind spending a couple of hours, this movie works. Garner's like a shot of Adavan, coolly nailing the wise widower who's been through the ringer and has come out stronger for it.

A highlight is when Murphy, after being accused of "banging" Emma by Bobby Jack, delivered this line without so much as raising his voice, in that way only James Garner can:

"You are a miserable son-of-a-bitch, you know that? I don't know why she took you in the house; I'd bed you down with the dogs, and I'll tell you something else, mister--you may be a lot younger and stronger, but you're about to get your ass kicked from here to the state line. And I'm wearing the boots that can do it."

Damn Straight.



Okay, so I used the stupid word synchronicity because that's what happens sometimes, you pull two movies off your "watch instantly" queue, you don't know the plot of either, but they are remarkably similar in some major way. Or, maybe my subconscious knew the plots somehow and that's why, after Murphy's Romance, I started up Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974).

Like Murphy, Alice is about a mid-thirtees mother (played by Ellen Burstyn) recently extricated from an unfulfilling marriage (via fatal car wreck instead of divorce) and must hit the road and head West to carve out a new life for her and her young son. In both films mother and son look out for each other, both do what it takes to get by, and they are extremely close, dodging the pitfalls of new surroundings and questionable men.

I got it on good authority from separate sources that Alice is a great flick. And I bet most cinephiles would argue that even a somewhat overlooked Scorcese film is better than anything Sally Field's been in. And they might be right. And maybe chalk it up to watching Alice pretty late at night, but I liked Murphy better.

Maybe Alice is a more critically admired movie, but honestly I had to turn it off a half hour before it ended. Again, I was tired, but that movie is too damn long. There were full minutes where I wondered why wasn't that on the cutting room floor? Answer: technically it's a gorgeous movie, and totally ahead of its time in that regard, but pretty shots don't always move the story forward.

I heard Kris Kristofferson was in this movie. By an hour in, and still no Kris, I was starting to wonder if I'd heard correctly. Honestly, that character needed to be in WAY before that. By the time he appears, I've honestly stopped caring. And though a lot of the mother/son dialogue was golden, the kid's starting to annoy me, and as admirable as Alice is, I just didn't like her very much, perhaps due to lack of character development.

The scenes in the diner were just unbearable. I didn't like the spin-off sitcom Alice, and I didn't like it here. Is it supposed to be funny? Is it supposed to be depressing and dramatic? It could be both simultaneously, but it just seemed to swing back and forth willy-nilly. It was exhausting.

And when Kris flipped out and smacked the kid during the guitar lesson, I just turned it off and went to sleep. I was done. I needed him to be a nice guy, not another asshole in these poor people's lives, and I certainly didn't have the patience or interest to see him change, and why.

Murphy showed up within the first ten minutes of Murphy's Romance, and we got a lot of time to get to know him, get to like him. And when he finally gets the girl, it's really satisfying because of it. If Murphy had shown up an hour into the movie and then smacked Ella's boy, I would have turned it off too.

But, maybe I'll watch the rest just for kicks.