Review of Jerry Maguire (1996) by Aaron C — 17 Aug 2013

I want to start off by saying that Jerry Maguire is tied (with Moneyball) for the best sports movie ever.

Now, to the rest of the review.

Meet Jerry Maguire. He's a sports agent. He handles the financial problems that arise among sports players- basically, he's one of those guys you see at airports in their Armani suits, typing away at their laptops for fifteen hours a day and racking up gazillions of frequent flyer miles, to be used on their next five hundred flights.

All he's ever cared about is money, which is realistic and believable because all of the big financial companies only care about money, and it's only natural that their employees would act the same way.

But then, something changes. One of Jerry's clients (a young hockey player) gets injured, his kid makes Jerry feel bad, overnight he grows a conscience, has a moral epiphany, types it up into a 25-page "mission statement" overnight, and promptly gets fired the next day.

At this point, we are properly introduced to two main characters: Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), the only person who works as part of Jerry's firm who sides with him and his morality when he gets fired (on a side note, if you ever want to know one possible way to accept being fired, watch this movie). And Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), a football player whom Jerry represents. The similarity between these two people is that they both stick with Jerry throughout all the hard times he's been through. They are the only two people to stay at his side while the rest of his so-called "friends" scramble to take his clients and win his money.

But what's his grand plan? Well, he's got an employee, years of experience in the field, and a client. Why not start his own company?

This they do, and the movie gracefully twirls through the subsequent periods of time, through Jerry getting drunk and being more real than he ever was, through a confession of love from a woman about a man who isn't sure of much in her life but is sure of a few things, through the ups and the downs of life with Rod Tidwell, and through eventual success, and through morality.

Bottom Line: Jerry Maguire is really the first film (and the only film) I've seen that really focuses on ethics, beliefs, and morals, and suggests that they matter. Tom Cruise may be known more for his work in Minority Report, the Mission Impossible franchise, or Risky Business- but I will always remember him as the uplifting, soul-wrenching, good-hearted Jerry Maguire.