Jerry Maguire (1996)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Cameron Crowe

Writer (WGA):

Cameron Crowe (written by)

Release Date:

13 December 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

Everybody loved him... Everybody disappeared.

Plot:

When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent with the only athlete who stays with him.

Plot Keywords:

Sports Agent | Client | Agent | Football | Football Player

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 21 wins & 18 nominations

Cast

Tom Cruise	...	Jerry Maguire
Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Rod Tidwell
Renée Zellweger	...	Dorothy Boyd (as Renee Zellweger)
Kelly Preston	...	Avery Bishop
Jerry O'Connell	...	Frank Cushman
Jay Mohr	...	Bob Sugar
Bonnie Hunt	...	Laurel Boyd
Regina King	...	Marcee Tidwell
Jonathan Lipnicki	...	Ray Boyd
Todd Louiso	...	Chad the Nanny
Mark Pellington	...	Bill Dooler
Jeremy Suarez	...	Tyson Tidwell
Jared Jussim	...	Dicky Fox
Benjamin Kimball Smith	...	Keith Cushman
Ingrid Beer	...	Anne-Louise

MPAA:

Rated R for language and sexuality.

Runtime:

139 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | American Sign Language

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby | DTS-Stereo

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | France:Unrated | Iceland:L | USA:R (certificate #34799) | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Austria:6 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Germany:6 | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Spain:7 | Sweden:7 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

John Wayne Airport - 18601 Airport Way, Santa Ana, California, USA

Company:

Gracie Films

Trivia:

Cameron Crowe offered the Dorothy Boyd role to Janeane Garofalo, if she could lose weight, but after trimming down, she learned that Renée Zellweger had won the part instead in what was to become a career-launching smash hit.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Jerry is kissing Dorothy on the front porch after their date, he accidentally unties her dress and then reties it in a messy knot. This knot can continue to be seen in the shots from the back throughout the scene, but in the shots from the side, the straps of the dress are clearly tied in a bow.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jerry Maguire: So this is the world, and there are almost six billion people on it. When I was a kid, there were three. It's hard to keep up.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Storm Cell (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Secret Garden

Successful multi genre

This movie is a comedy, drama, romance, sports movie, and a money movie (e.g. Wall Street, where the main character is trying to make a lot of money). The problem such a movie faces is maintaining a consistent tone. Remember Prizzi's Honor? JM solves that problem by using restraint. It doesn't go over the top, although its characters sometimes do. It has funny moments, but it's not Animal House or American Pie. It's a drama, but it keeps the stakes low. This isn't Armageddon: they aren't trying to save the world. There are no life or death decisions. The romantic stakes aren't that high either: Renee Zellweger loves Tom Cruise, but she's been in love before and if this doesn't work out, she will be again. The only really high stakes are the money. By keeping the stakes low, JM let's us watch it with a bit of detachment.

This is more of a drama than a comedy. A good test is whether the characters change. Here, Tom Cruise starts off completely cynical, abruptly changes to ridiculously idealistic, then spends the rest of the movie finding the right balance. Renee Zellweger starts by loving Tom Cruise from afar, then gets him, then has to work out her ambiguous feelings.

JM is fun to watch. The characters, though flawed, are sympathetic. We enjoy watching them succeed, fail (sometimes in funny ways), and try to discover what they really care about. It's complicated, thoughtful, and surprisingly subtle.