Jerry Maguire

I was going back and forth on what I should review for this month. After much consideration, I have decided to review movies I have seen that have Cuba Gooding Jr. in them. Let’s not waste any time. Let’s jump in with the 1997 classic, “Jerry Maguire.”

­Seeing his world – mainly as a sports agent – shattering around him, Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise, writes a mission statement during a nervous breakdown asking for a gentler way to business. This causes him to get fired, but he manages to save one client – football player Rod Tilbrook (Cuba Gooding Jr), and assistant Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger). Jerry is about to learn a lot about life.

Adam Smith said in his review, “If you don't walk out of Jerry Maguire with a goofy grin the size of Alaska plastered across your face, check your pulse - you're probably dead.” Director Cameron Crowe has written and directed a smart, funny, shamelessly upbeat romantic comedy and the icing is that this was the finest performance of Tom Cruise’s career.

Jerry is a sports agent on the edge of a breakdown. He’s rich, successful, and has a love life that falls under “rampant.” However, he’s not happy. He looks around and sees a business sinking into sarcasm. A world where a kid can’t ask a sports player to do so much as autograph a baseball card without endorsement deals and counter-deals racing to the front. In one long lonely night of the soul, he writes a “mission statement” demanding a more genuine approach, delivers it to his colleagues, and is instantly terminated from his job.

Smith noted, “With only one desultory client left, Rod Tidwell (played with screwballish energy by Gooding Jnr.), a second rate footballer with a surfeit of energy off the field but precious little on it, Maguire decides to go it alone, failing to persuade any of his colleagues to accompany him apart from lovestruck single parent from accounts Dorothy Boyd (the excellent Zellweger). Things don't run smoothly (natch) for the isolated couple: Maguire is screwed by both ex-colleagues and clients, and although he is attracted enough to his partner and her sprog to smooch, shag and finally wed, the marriage is in trouble within weeks with the outside world's cynicism and Jerry's escalating emotional crisis leaching in and poisoning the familial nest.”

Smith continued, “That this doesn't degenerate into an experience akin to being hit full in the face by the Tate & Lyle express is a testament both to Crowe's (director of Say Anything and Singles) script and direction plus a new maturity and confidence in Cruise's performance. Crowe takes a dessicated and predictable genre and invests it with a delightfully off-beam sensibility.” Scenes never go exactly as you expect. Take the opening montage where a boxer-shorted Cruise narrates his dive into extreme doubt while simultaneously weakening the corniness by admitting that this is all a little “touchy-feely.”

Then there’s Cruise, who for the first time in his career may not have required defense. Smith said, “Not satisfied to deliver the kind of by-the-numbers winsome romantic lead that a few years ago he'd probably have been satisfied with, here he fleshes Jerry's struggle with a developing disgust for the world to the point where it's finally possible to forget that this was the man who made Cocktail and Days Of Thunder.”

Other casts included in this sterling supporting performance are Bonnie Hunt as Dorothy’s concerned, distrustful sister, plus a ruffle-haired kid, played by Jonathan Lipnicki, who’ll, as Smith put it, “have anyone leaning towards broodiness, repapering the box-room and spending a fortune down Mothercare.” Also, comedian Aries Spears plays Cuba Gooding Jr.’s brother.

“Jerry Maguire” is that rare movie that reminds you why you like movies in the first place. Be nice to yourself. Go see it.

This film is famous for the lines, “Show me the money,” “You had me at hello,” “You complete me,” and “Help me help you.” I remember this movie was talked about a lot when it was released, but I didn’t see it until about 10-11 years ago. This movie had Tom Cruise not playing his typical self but was quite different from any role he had played at the time. If you haven’t seen it yet, you’re missing out. This is a film that is not one to be missed.

Look out next week when I review a tear-jerker in “Cuba Gooding Jr. Month.”