‘Maybe love shouldn’t be such hard work...’
Everyone knows the formula of a romcom by now and everyone knew it when Jerry Maguire was first released back in 1996. You start with the meet-cute, then comes the honeymoon period, then the conflict, then the reconciliation. What makes Jerry Maguire so good is that despite following this conventional approach, it still packs an emotional punch every time I go back to it. The conflict section in this film is so mundane, so ordinary and yet so heartbreaking. It’s probably the greatest romcom ever made, and it’s also one of the best sports films ever made…
Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise), an unscrupulous sports agent, has an attack of conscience and decides to start a new business with personal relationships at its core. Despite producing a convincing mission statement, he only persuades Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), a single mother and office worker, to sign up. Overnight, all his clients leave, except for one. Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jnr). Tidwell has talent but he plays with his head instead of his heart and it is this that is holding him back from being truly successful. Bonnie Hunt steals every scene in which she appears as Dorothy’s fiercely protective sister and Jay Mohr plays Jerry’s sleazy rival agent, Bob Sugar.
I’m a firm believer, as I’ve stated many times, that Tom Cruise is the greatest leading man of all time. I often forget how good an actor he is on top of the charm and good lucks, however. Yes, Zellweger is great, and Gooding Jnr deservedly won an Oscar for his bombastic portrayal of Rod Tidwell, but it is Cruise who carries the film throughout. Little Tommy always does his best work when playing someone down on his luck, and Maguire can’t catch a break for the first two-thirds of this movie. This being a Crowe movie, the soundtrack is great, particularly the use of Bruce Springsteen’s underrated classic ‘Secret Garden’, and the director’s incredible screenplay boasts some of his most memorable lines (“Show me the money”, “Help me, help you”, “You complete me”, “You had me at “hello””, etc).
Jerry Maguire is a timeless classic and further proof that for a while there, Cameron Crowe was one of America’s finest storytellers. I loved revisiting it. You had me at Cruise’s beautiful face.
