"Let's give a cheer for Jerry Maguire,
A very rare agent, he's not a liar,
He's the studio's only hope,
And if he don't win it's break out the rope,
Everyone loves him Tom you could win,
Everyone's seen it even in Berlin,
And if you don't score this goal,
You still go home with Nicole..."
- (Billy Crystal - 69th Academy Awards, Opening Number)
Jerry Maquire is Cameron Crowe's masterpiece - seen this movie so many times, still brilliant the umpteenth time around.
In the titular role of Jerry Maguire, a true rarity, an agent who dicovers that he may just have a heart we have a particularly brilliant Tom Cruise. Now say what you will about Tom Cruise, the crazed antics and religious diatribe, but the man is most definitely the closest thing we have to a true bonafide movie star - even in his worst movie roles he is still pretty damned impressive. How has he not won an Academy Award yet?
Cuba Gooding Jr, has won an Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Jerry Maguire, he too is brilliant in this here little picture as Rod Tidwell - and let's not forget that acceptance speech, in a three hour plus show, it's these moments of absolute elation which make them so thrilling to watch, sheer bliss bursting out on stage - it would take a little Italian by the name of Roberto Benigni to upstage Cuba's Oscar acceptance speech.
And then we have Renee Zellweger - introduced to the movie viewing psyche through her breakthrough role in this movie (this was Renee before her face went done all scrunched up) - and altogether we went Ooh, Renee Schwartzellweger!
Special shout outs to Regina King & Jonathan Lipnicki & Bonnie Hunt!
Jerry Maguire is one of my (many, but not too many) favourite movies of all time, it is a great film, with a less than perfect protagonist up against insurmountable odds, who manages to maintain, discover and elevate his sense of self as he navigates his way through self-induced crisis, after self-induced crisis(which may just turn out to be the best series of regrets a man could have).
Hysterically funny, endearingly charming, imperfectly romantic, unapologetically heart-wrenching, unflinchingly serious - Jerry Maguire is a movie hero for an age!
And that makes 7 (the 1st of the 69th Academy Awards selection, the crop of 1996) - Jerry Maguire was the only Big Hollywood Production nominated for Best Picture in a year in which Big Hollywood was up against a roster of small and independent films, and it sure shone brightly, and it still does, standing the test of time to remain timeless...
nuff said...
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