Review of Jerry Maguire (1996) by Jeremy S — 21 May 2010

I've seen Jerry Maguire a few times, and the amount of time between each viewing consistently manages to convince me that I didn't really like it. And yet, every time I experience the film, I instantly fall in love with it. There are probably several factors involved in why I would convince myself I don't like it, almost all having to do with a psychological need for approval from others, others that have expressed time and time again that Jerry Maguire is overrated. That classification likely has to do with all the Oscar attention it received, and people love to tear apart popular Oscar movies [See Titanic (1997)]. I can't do much to change the hearts of people who want to hate this movie. I can only try to justify why the only thing keeping me from hating it is the movie itself. Jerry Maguire is about truth, and while yes, part of that involves being truthful to one another, I'm mostly concerned with how it illustrates truth to oneself. That ability to stop censoring or overwriting that which is quintessentially you.

At the start of Jerry Maguire, we learn everything we'll need to know about Jerry's (Tom Cruise) 'first' life. In fact, by the time the "Written and Directed by Cameron Crowe" credit flashes on screen, we hear Jerry state that his life, at 35, was just beginning. Why was his life just beginning? Well, Jerry Maguire is a sports agent, and after a lifetime of violating his own ethical standards combined with a catalyst "f*&# you" from a client's kid, Jerry writes his 'mission statement' for all the employees at S.M.I. to read and consider. As if a higher power were watching, Jerry's given the opportunity to enact his new 'mission statement' as he's fired from S.M.I., managing to keep only one of his many clients (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and resulting shortly in the end of his engagement to an ambitious, but overtly insensitive, woman. The only employee inspired enough to follow Jerry on this enlightened new journey is an accountant named Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger).

So who is Dorothy Boyd? Dorothy is a single mother who lives with her sister. While moved enough to follow Jerry on his path, she worries about the ability to afford health care for her son. It becomes clear in time that she is infatuated with Jerry for the man he wants to be and the man that he almost is. Early in the film, we watch as she listens intently to Jerry's engagement story as he tells it to a woman first class. Stuck in coach, Dorothy notes how first class "used to be a better meal. Now, it's a better life." She's clearly a romantic at heart. We see how she's affected by a man who signs to his significant other "you complete me" just moments after leaving her job with Jerry.

Before we discuss the theme of this movie, I want to take a moment to bring to your attention a few items that I refuse to believe are just coincidences having to do with 1967 film The Graduate (and I don't mean that Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman played siblings in a totally separate movie). In The Graduate, we have a young man named Ben as the film's focus. As the film's title implies, Ben is a recent university graduate. We learn quickly as the film starts up that Ben, like our Jerry, fears for the future and with a new degree in hand, finds himself wondering how to begin his real life. In his room, Ben has an aquarium, and we're given fairly constant reminders that Ben himself feels isolated from the world, much like the fish in the tank. Perhaps the most clearly illustrated reminder comes when we experience Ben in his diving suit on his birthday. In Jerry Maguire, Cameron Crowe sees fit at the very start to insert a clearly metaphorical shot of Jerry swimming under water. Like Ben, Jerry feels cut off from the world. When Jerry does leave the office, he goes to the aquarium and takes one of the fish out of the tank to care for. It's an action that represents a move out of that 'water' which keeps Jerry cut off. You see, this is how the films diverge. The Graduate is about a young man who has no life ambition except for an obsession with a girl who he may not actually even love. Jerry Maguire is about a man who for the first time, finds something deeply meaningful and pursues it. Ben and Jerry (Oh, man. That just hit me) are going in opposite directions. Jerry is coming from uncertainty while Ben heads toward it. It wouldn't be the first time Crowe uses a shot from The Graduate in a more optimistic capacity. Say Anything...'s final shot is a pretty direct homage to the final moment in The Graduate with perhaps only a simple ding to separate them.

What was that I was saying at the beginning? Jerry Maguire is about truth? Well, I suppose it's about time that I elaborate on that. The theme is not new to writer/director Cameron Crowe who has a film whose title is precisely about the ability to Say Anything... Jerry Maguire starts the movie as a shark in a suit. His outward demeanor of charisma is a charade which keeps him from being close to anybody. As a tape at his bachelor party reveals, Jerry is good at friendship but bad at intimacy. So what happens? Jerry has that epiphany which turns into a mission statement. It's his first step into the world of being true to himself, and it's not without consequences. All of those things in life he obtained through his fakery, he loses. And that might seem a tragedy for a little while until you realize that the new life built on a stronger more virtuous foundation is headed in a healthier and much more satisfying direction. Although Jerry never seems to completely lose that sports agent way of talking, even during a crucial monologue at the end, most viewers might notice that the agent speak is more and more becoming a conduit for Jerry's truth. In some way, I suppose the theme comes down to an old cliche, "the truth shall set you free," but it's got an asterisk informing you that there will be hardship before the end.

Look, there's a lot more to this movie than what I've mentioned here, but I like the warm and fuzzies. Hence, if a movie is about the freeing nature of truth, that's going to stick out to me more than the film's romantic/comedic elements which, in my opinion, exist to serve that main idea. I'll leave you with the words of the great Dicky Fox, "I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I've failed as much as I've succeeded, but I love my wife. I love my life, and I wish you my kind of success.".