Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire

One of the best romantic comedies of the 1990s, this box-office hit cemented writer-director Cameron Crowe's reputation as "the voice of a generation." Crowe could probably do without that label, but he's definitely in sync with the times with this savvy story about a sports agent (Tom Cruise) whose fall from grace motivates his quest for professional recovery, and the slow-dawning realization that he needs the love and respect of the single mom (Renée Zellweger in her breakthrough role) who has supported him through the worst of times. This is one of Cruise's best, most underrated performances, and in an Oscar-winning role, Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the football star who remains Jerry Maguire's only loyal client on a hard road to redemption and personal growth. If that sounds touchy-feely, it is only because Crowe has combined sharp entertainment with a depth of character that is rarely found in mainstream comedy. --Jeff Shannon

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Production: TriStar Pictures
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 25 wins & 41 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.3
Metacritic:
77
Rotten Tomatoes:
83%
R
Year:
1996
139
26,781 Views
Everybody loved him... Everybody disappeared.
The rest of his life begins now.
The journey is everything.
Show me the money!
1+2=3

Jerry:
I started talking with Dennis Wilburn about your renegotiation.

Rod:
Talking. Jerry Rice, Andre Reed, Cris Carter... I smoke all these fools. They are making the big sweet dollars. They are making the... kwan, and you are talking.

Jerry:
Kwan. That's your word?

Rod:
Yeah, man, it means love, respect, community... and the dollars too. The whole package. The kwan.

Jerry:
Great word. Tao?

Rod:
No, I air-dry.

Jerry:
Rod, I say this with great respect, but those players you mentioned are marquee players...

Rod:
Marquee?!?

Jerry:
Here's what I'm saying. This is a renegotiation. We want more from them, so let's show them more from us. Let's show them your pure joy of the game, let's bury the attitude a little, let's show them --

Rod:
You're telling me to dance.

Jerry:
No, I'm saying to be --

Rod:
"Love me love me love me... put me on t.v." That's the iconography of racism, man!

Jerry:
Rod, I'm not a racist. I'm telling you to be the best version of you, to get back to the guy who first started playing this game. Way back when you were a kid. It wasn't just about the money, was it?...Was it?

Rod:
Do your job, man, don't tell me to dance.

Jerry:
Fine. Fine. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine.

Rod:
I'm an athlete, not an entertainer. These are the ABC's of ME. Get it? I do not dance. Breathe! Breathe, Jerry.

Jerry:
I am out here for you. You don't know what it's like to be me. It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about, okay?! God. Help me! Help me, Rod. Help me help you. Help me help you. Help me help you. I'm sorry.

Rod:
You are hanging on by a very thin thread. And I dig that about you! No contract? I'll help me, I'll help you, help everybody! That's my man.

Jerry:
Hey, I'm happy to entertain you.

Rod:
Help me! Help me!

Jerry:
See you in Los Angeles.

Rod:
Jerry. Come on, man. See, that's the difference between us. You think we're fighting. I think we're talking. Unless you love everybody, you can't sell anybody.

Jerry Maguire:
Who had I become? Just another shark in a suit? Two days later at our corporate conference in Miami, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. I couldn't escape one simple thought: I hated myself. No, no, no, here's what it was: I hated my place in the world. I had so much to say and no one to listen. And then it happened. It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began writing what they call a mission statement. Not a memo, a mission statement. You know, a suggestion for the future of our company. A night like this doesn't come along very often. I seized it. What started out as one page became twenty-five. Suddenly, I was my father's son again. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job, how I ended up here out of law school, the way a stadium sounds when one of my players performs well on the field. The way we are meant to protect them in health and in injury. With so many clients, we had forgotten what was important.I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and I'm not even a writer. I was remembering even the words of the original sports agent, my mentor, the late great Dickie Fox who said: 'The key to this business is personal relationships.' Suddenly, it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients. Less money. More attention. Caring for them, caring for ourselves and the games, too. Just starting our lives, really. Hey - I'll be the first to admit, what I was writing was somewhat touchy-feely. I didn't care. I have lost the ability to bullshit. It was the me I'd always wanted to be. I took it in a bag to a Copymat in the middle of the night and printed up a hundred and ten copies. Even the cover looked like The Catcher in the Rye. I entitled it 'The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business.'...Everybody got a copy...I was 35. I had started my life.


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