Sunday Afternoon Movie: Jerry Maguire (1996)

Recently Tom Cruise pulled off a mission impossible on his movie career, the fourth entry in his action fueled M:I franchise not only is a series high, it’s also his highest grossing film ever.

Released the same year as the first installment of Mission Impossible, Cruise teamed up with writer/director Cameron Crowe for sporting drama Jerry Maguire. Coming in at an epic 139 minutes this is a little longer than my usual Sunday afternoon movie but exceptions to the rule can be made for the right film. As it’s been a good five years since I last watched it, Sunday seemed like the perfect time to revisit this 16 year old movie.

Cruise plays the title character, a well paid sports agent who gets a moral epiphany and shares it with his co-workers. After he’s swiftly fired for his opinions, Jerry takes his only client Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jnr) and assistant Dorothy Boyd (Rene Zellweger) with him, to start a new business.

Jerry starts his new agency and sets about signing some of his former clients, although this turns out to be a much harder task than he thought. He’s also faced with some uncomfortable home truths and he reevaluates his whole life, and his place in the world.

Tom Cruise was nominated for his second Oscar for Jerry Maguire, he lost that year to Geoffrey Rush’s performance in Shine and was up against Ralph Finnes, Woody Harrelson and Billy Bob Thornton as well.

To his credit, Cruise gives a terrific performance and next to Magnolia’s Frank T.J Mackey, it’s his best work to date. I am still personally offended on his behalf that Cruise didn’t win best supporting actor for his part in Magnolia, characters like Mackey come along once in a career and Cruise gave it more than his all. However, he lost to Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules so I can’t be too angry about it.

Cuba Gooding Jnr won for best supporting actor and gave a lively (and long) acceptance speech. I have always felt disappointed with Mr Gooding Jnr post Jerry Maguire, he’s clearly a very talented actor but he didn’t seem bothered he drifted into the direct to video wasteland in recent years. He may appear in the odd big movie here or there, but with dozens of DTV action thrillers to his name his Oscar win feels like a lifetime ago.

The scenes with Dorothy’s young son are undeniably cute and I’m sure melted many a woman’s heart. Incase you were interested as to what Jonathan Lipnicki looks like now, then wonder no more.

It’s a movie that gives you hope it’s never to late to make a change, it’s never to late to follow you dreams and love is often found where you least expect it. Whilst the ‘Show me the money’ and “you had me at hello” have been parodied to hell and back, they still raise a smile and warm the heart. There is also the now expected ‘Tom Cruise running scene’, which lets face it, it wouldn’t be a Tom Cruise movie without a bit of running.

As if that wasn’t enough you get a beautiful Bruce Springsteen song on the soundtrack as well, what more could you ask for from a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Happy viewing.