If there was an award for movies with the most lines that immediately become famous and change American culture, “Jerry Maguire” would have won.
Consider, if you will: 1) “Show me the money!!” 2) “You complete me.” 3) “You had me at hello.” 4) “The human head weighs eight pounds.” 5) “Quan” 6) “Help me, help you.” I’m pretty sure I’m missing many more—oh wait: “Shoplifting … .” Well I can’t utter the rest of that sentence here. But it’s famous. And this is part of why “Jerry Maguire” became an instant, beloved American classic.
Young Cruise
Tom Cruise’s stock-in-trade as a young actor was portraying arrogant, self-centered, slick, somewhat predatory boyish-men, and their transitions into mature manhood. They start off, in the vernacular of mytho-poetic men’s work, with their Inner Warrior and Magician quadrants strong, and then over the course of the movie, also evolve their Inner King and Lover. “Rain Man,” “A Few Good Men,” “Top Gun,” and “Jerry Maguire” all follow this archetypal storyline.In “Jerry Maguire,” Cruise plays (the titular) high-powered sports agent. Working at a massive agency, he handles a portfolio filled with famous baseball-basketball-football athletes. In Jerry’s world, it’s all about the money. He secures big-buck contracts and commercial deals for his clients, keeps them in the fame-game, and in turn rakes in the cash for his firm, and, last but not least—makes major money for Mr. Maguire. In terms of the phrase, “swimming with sharks,” Jerry’s a classic shark.
Jerry says stuff like (on the phone): “I will not rest until I have you holding a Coke, wearing your own shoe, playing a Sega game—featuring you—while singing your own song in a new commercial—starring you—broadcast during the Superbowl, in a game that you are winning, and I will not sleep until that happens. I’ll give you 15 minutes to call me back.”
Epiphany
One night though, Jerry wakes up, sees himself in the mirror, and for the first time, can’t run away from who he’s become. He takes stock of his current lying, parasite status, and in frenzied fit of self-loathing and soul-cleansing, writes out a mission-and-morality statement wherein he details the things that matter. He re-imagines the money-centric state of his profession, and resets the true-north of his moral compass towards integrity, authenticity, conscience, ethics, and putting clients first.And while still buzzing with the endorphins from such an overwhelming infusion of truthfulness, he heads into the office, makes copious copies of his statement, and personally puts one in every colleague’s mailbox—boss included. Then he heads home and gets some sleep.
You know that cold-sweating, sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you wake up and reality hits? Jerry rushes to the office to try and take it all back—mailboxes are empty. He tries to get back on the elevator—too late. He cringes, and enters the workspace to a crescendo-ing, slow clap from grinning, predatory fellow sharks, recalling the O’Jays lyric, “They smile in your face, all the time, they want to take your place, the back stabbers.”
Jerry eventually unceremoniously gets the boot, of course, but during his extremely embarrassing exodus, where he takes the goldfish (“The fish, they’re coming with me.”) and gives a pep-talk and invitation for anyone to join him in his new vision. Only one, Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellwegger), has the courage to leave with him.
Will Jerry be true to his inner moral compass? Will he sell out again? Will he use Dorothy the same way he used all his women? Or will her wee son Ray win Jerry’s heart in a trivia match, by informing him from the car-backseat, apropos of nothing, that the human head weighs eight pounds?
Performances
Tom Cruise was nominated for Best Actor at the 1997 Academy Awards, but lost to Geoffrey Rush in “Shine.” That is, of course, mighty stiff competition. Cuba Gooding Jr., however, won for Best Supporting Actor and certainly deserved the acclaim. His character, fictitious, end-zone-break-dancing Cardinals football wide receiver Rod Tidwell was one for the history books; he of “Show me the money,” “Quan,” and “Ya knoooww??”
And Renée Zellweger got famous in “Jerry Maguire” by being perfectly cast to play sweet, nurturing, protective, vulnerable, endearing, single mom Dorothy Boyd, who’s also got enough backbone to support her man though hard times. She was the wife all men pine for.
Honorable mentions: Jay Mohr as the ultimate predatory, heartless shark with the perfect smarmy name: Bob Sugar; Bonnie Hunt as Laurel Boyd, Dorothy’s protective older sister who runs a woman’s group; and Regina King as Marcee Tidwell, who’s got a list of memorable lines herself; and finally little Jonathan Lipnicki as Dorothy’s hilarious son, Ray.
But remember that business I mentioned about evolving the inner lover and king? Here’s the monologue spoken by a young man who’s finally evolved both:
