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Rating: 'Jerri Maguire' is a 1996 film by Cameron Crowe, well performed by Cruise, Cuba Gooding Junior, and Renee Zellweger (among the main cast). 5 Oscar nominations. Not bad for a comedy, quite enjoyable, which depicts the strong, fragile, uncontrollable, and omnipresent emotions of the average American.
Tom Cruise/Maguire is overflowing. He gives it his all and at times seems excessive, although personally, I find his gestures more than engaging. In short, handsome Tom doesn't just rely on his good looks, but brings a dose of energetic and ambitious acting, filled with jerky movements, angry and uncontrolled gestures, as if kicking into thin air, and gestures never seen before. Meanwhile, Cuba Gooding Junior is formidable, passionate. He brings his face and adds strong spirituality and physicality. Excellent at getting into character. At the top.
The theme of sports agents, high-flying players on the hunt for useful deals, character management monsters and eccentricity handlers, negotiation masters and lovers of risk and potentially dirty play, is more fascinating than ever. Tom/Jerry repents and rises as a champion of quality, going against the actual corporate needs (squeeze as much as possible and get everything immediately). He drafts a manual for colleagues and superiors, thinking himself enlightened, but he preaches in the desert and ends up unemployed. He starts from scratch and makes a clean sweep, getting rid of his girlfriend and recognizing fair-weather friends. A tender dreamer follows him (Renee Zellweger), drunk on love to pursue an utopian dream: not Maguire's cry of "it will be wonderful," but her own, "finding a man." The relationship between Maguire and Tidwell (Gooding), the only client left, is passionate, friendly, engaging, and is an exchange of life disciplines. Tom envies Cuba for his sense of family, Cuba learns from Tom's rationality.
The film is very long, too romantic and filled with ideals that are frankly too philanthropic: in the opening lines, the little son of a football player curses Maguire because his dad got hurt. Too bad the kid enjoys being the spoilt child of a superstar. This incident shakes Maguire, even though he is quite a good agent (otherwise, he would not handle bunches of superstars). So why does his company get rid of him over an ethical trifle? Many might be annoyed by Gooding's motto "Show me the money." Maguire works to fix this inherent philosophy in the "soulless" champion and pushes him to search within himself for more passion for the game and leave behind the futility of certain economic goals. Too bad that ideals don't pay the bills, and Gooding/Tidwell indeed thinks of his family's future, showing a strong attachment to certain core values of American society. The phrase "my word is as solid as oak" means nothing, nor does the handshake of a young and sought-after American football superstar's father. When the man authorizes another agent to negotiate with wealthy clubs, Maguire will hear "You were all the time with that black man." Innocence's fault? A shitty world?
The love story between Maguire and the secretary is shaky. We don't know how it takes off in a semi-phony marriage as she is totally infatuated: she is vulnerable due to her middle age which worries her. Middle-aged women embittered by solitude who gather at her sister's house to badmouth men are an ominous sign of "nothing done" that worries her too much. She doesn’t want her little son to grow up without a father, and it's enough for her to notice that the two communicate. As soon as Maguire opens his mouth and tries to climb up slippery slopes, she understands nothing more.
I don't like it when the two make love for the first time and in the background, there's music with Coltrane and Davis (borrowed from Tato as spiritual and total gathering music, which might also be true) and Maguire laughs and says "What is this stuff?" What would have been the right background music for making love?
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