Jerry Maguire (1996)

Written and Directed by Cameron Crowe

Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr, Renee Zellweger, Jonathan Lipnicki, Bonnie Hunt, Regina King, Kelly Preston, Jerry O’Connell, Jay Mohr, Beau Bridges (uncredited).

Jerry Maguire is one of the best agents in the business, with over 70 clients just to his name in a conglomerate company with dozens of cut throat agents just like him. When one of his star athletes is injured in a game, and his first thoughts are getting him back on the field, he is called out by the athlete’s son. This triggers his conscience for the first time in a long time, and he writes his feelings in a manuscript that begs ‘less is more’.

His bosses disagree, and he is swiftly fired – and goes out on his own – with one of the accountants at his firm, Dorothy (Zellweger), whom he has recently befriended. With only one client, the cowboy wanabe football star (Gooding Jr), Maguire tries to show the world that his new ideology can work.

Charming mid nighties romantic comedy has well written characters, with very likeable cast. Cruise here does a great job at playing the once morally corrupt agent, who has an epiphany that he not doing the best work he can. While yes, he is doing his usual schtick, I’ve always enjoyed his work, and he is a good actor. This is also just on the cusp of his Mission Impossible era, so he was still the golden child of cinema here.

Zellweger as always is brilliant as the single mum to Roy (Lipnicki), who admires Jerry from afar, and gobsmacked at his friendship with her son. She gives a lovely performance as a woman who pines for the love for not only herself, but also her son.

Gooding gives a solid performance, however this might be controversial, I don’t believe this was an Oscar nominated worthy performance, let alone win. He was up against some big nominees in 1997, and I don’t think his was the best perfomer.

I really enjoyed this film this time; I last watched it not long after its release so I didn’t appreciate it as a teenager. A great watch!

4/5