Jerry Maguire
Weâve all seen varying degrees of the Tom Cruise Movie Genre (Golden Boy faces adversity, overcomes odds, gets the girl, and wins the day), but this 1996 effort from Cameron Crowe could certainly be considered one of the best written of its kind. As a slick, fast-talking sports agent who gets a crisis of conscience and reevaluates his whole life, Cruise is in top form playing his type of role: the cocky smile, the desperate struggle, and the fist-pumping triumph are all here, but itâs his interaction with the other leads that makes it through; Cuba Gooding Jr. as the one athlete (and receiver for the Arizona Cardinals) who sticks with him as his agent brings humor and exuberance to the role, from the signature âShow me the money!â scene to the more interpersonal interaction with Cruise, knowing that both of them are barely hanging on, yet knowing itâs going to take their loyalty to each other to reach the next level for each of them, and Goodingâs Oscar win, while in some ways a surprise, was nonetheless well deserved; Renee Zellweger (in the role that made her a star), is surprising in that her performance was NOT nominated for the Oscar, as we see this sweet down to earth single mom who obviously is smitten with this down on his luck guy yet is willing to risk it all to be by his side. Zellweger in essence plays the girl that weâd all like to meet and show eternal loyalty to. However, the scene late in the film where they have their âbreak-upâ is extremely awkward, and the only thing I could wrap my head around was that she wanted her beau to be more âtouchy-feelyâ in public, and thus is merely a means to set up the emotional ending (which works). Then there is the issue of Jonathan Lipnicki as her precocious son, which has to go down as probably the worst child performance in a film since Drew Barrymore in E.T.: Pouring on the sickeningly cutesy tendencies in every shot and every line (especially his unneeded idiotic bon mots), I started to wonder if maybe he was one of those âspecial schoolâ types, until I realized that that was how he was directed to act, making him seem more like a trained monkey than a natural young actor. In other roles, Kelly Preston brings some sizzle as Maguireâs jilted fiancĂ©e; while Jay Mohr is suitably slimy as Jerryâs rival agent; Bonnie Hunt gets some nice moments as Zellwegerâs overprotective sister; Regina King as Goodingâs sassy wife manages some laughs and emotion; Jerry OâConnell as a top draft prospect (with a racist father played by Beau Bridges) barely registers; Glenn Frey is a welcome surprise as the Cardsâ GM; and Todd Louiso as the jazz-loving male nanny is just sad. Finally, there is the issue of this being a chick flick disguised as a âsportsâ movie: Despite cameos from several real life sports notables as Drew Bledsoe, Troy Aikman, Katarina Witt, Kerry Collins and many others, the film seems to be giving us an unrealistic, almost fantasized vision of the sports world, which is driven home by Goodingâs big moment, where he is knocked unconscious for five minutes after scoring a winning touchdown, only to wake up and perform an end zone celebration that would give Terrell Owens pause, and takes the viewer out of the movie a bit at a crucial point. Overall, a pretty good chick flick, but not necessarily a good sports movie for guysâŠ
7/10