Jerry Maguire Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Just as Ronaldo is sold for 80 million pounds to Real Madrid, Jerry Maguire in turn highlights the greed of the sports agent’s world

Delightful film from Cameron Crowe about one lone sports agent’s attempt to fight the system he helped created. The film in turn highlights the excesses of the 90s and shallowness of the corporate world. The sports agent is played by Tom Cruise, who tries to put something back and change things, be less corporate and more humanistic towards his clients. Cruise gives one of his best performances, up there with his role in Magnolia, Renee Zellweger is actually watchable, delivering the classic “you had me at hello” and there’s a great script full of quotable lines, “show me the money” and my favourite, “roll with the punches, tomorrow’s another day”. Even better than Cruise and Zellweger, is Cuba Gooding Jr, playing the minor American football player with a huge chip on his shoulder. The talks between the Cruise and his solitary client are worth the entry fee alone, “you telling me to dance?”, shouts Gooding Jr in his Oscar winning role. On the other hand, the film gets a little bit sentimental in one or two places, but in the summer when Transformers 2 is set to make billions at the UK box office, it’s nice to reminisce to a time when Hollywood was making quality dramas about real people, with real emotions, all in an immensely watchable fashion.

A Guilty Pleasure

Alot of people seem to hate this on principal; glossy Hollywood fare, starring the inimitable Mr Cruise, and already made famous for it's, 'Show Me The Money!', and, 'you had me at 'Hello'' scenes. Still, if you can put your cynicism on hold, you might just fall in love with this film, as I did. Cruise manages to play the eponymous lead with just the right mixture of smarm and charm, as a sporting agent who has a Road To Damascus moment and renounces the big money ethos held dear by his firm. Setting up shop on his own, having retained only one of his former clients, the film is a beautifully judged and perfectly played romantic comedy, as Jerry tries against the odds to get his business off the ground while becoming romantically entangled with his assistant, played by the charming Renee Zellwegger. Cuba Gooding Jr adds unexpected depth to his oscar-winning supporting turn as a loud-mouthed American Football star, and many of the film's funniest moments are down to his great interplay with Cruise's Jerry. Funny, touching, heart-warming, romantic, all without ever being TOO cheesy; I heartily recommend this.