Jerry Maguire (1996)

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:

Quirky | Famous Line | Hollywood Agent | Sports Show | Divorcee

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 21 wins & 18 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 20	12:30 AM	TBS
Sun. July 27	7:00 PM	AMC
Mon. July 28	2:30 PM	AMC

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, Dorothy's sister
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

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo | SDDS | Dolby

Certification:

South Korea:15 | USA:R (certificate #34799) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Philippines:PG-13 | France:Unrated | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Iceland:L | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | 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:

Director Cameron Crowe was a big fan of The Apartment (1960) and used Shirley MacLaine as a model for the kind of woman he wanted for Dorothy Boyd.

Goofs:

Continuity: As Jerry prepares to leave the office after he gets fired, his jacket jumps from buttoned to unbuttoned and back again between shots.

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:

Featured in "Dawson's Creek: The Scare (#1.11)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

Haitian Fight Song

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.