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Classics: Jerry Maguire

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The Classic: Jerry Maguire
Director: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr.

The Excuse:

You may disagree with my classification of Jerry Maguire as a classic, but my definition of “classic” is pretty open to interpretation. Generally, I mean films that are a few decades old and are abiding favourites. Jerry Maguire is new in comparison, but people were always amazed to hear I hadn’t seen it, so there you have it. Somehow, I just never got around to watching it. Cameron Crowe is a director I like, especially for making films with beautiful sound and great stories like Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky.

The Review:
Need I even provide a synopsis? Jerry Maguire is a football agent for a large company, and despite being great at his role, is a bit of a tortured soul. After sending out a memo endorsing smaller pools of contracted football players and more individual attention, he puts his job in jeopardy. He and his rival face off, leaving him with nought but two needy contracted players. Broke and clinging desperately to the bottom rung, with the help of Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) he vies to fulfil footballer Rod Tidwell’s (Cuba Gooding Jr.) contractual needs and make it to the end of the season.

While it’s a good story, and it’s always amusing to see classic quotes in action (see below), Jerry Maguire as a character simply was not endearing to me. Though his flaws were never kept secret, the character development was excuciatingly shallow and his whining, while at times fair, didn’t inspire empathy. Dorothy seemed far older than her alleged 26 years and desperate in a way only women in 90s films have achieved, and while Ray was cute, I guess the charm wore off a little over the past 14 years. Gooding Jr.’s Oscar was well-deserved, though, his performance entertaining without relying too heavily on stereotypes, and the relationship between him and his wife Marcee (Regina King) was excellent.

The Verdict:
Underwhelmed. Quotable, but not a veritable classic.

Favourite Quote:
“Show me the money!” – what else?!

Further Viewing for Experts:

Review: Date Night

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Tina Fey and Steve Carrell star in Date Night as Claire and Phil Foster; your typical “boring New Jersey couple” with full-time jobs, a house to keep, book groups to attend, and two children to tame. Their busy lifestyle allows for one date night per week: dinner at the local steak joint where they order potato skins and salmon and play “What’s the Story?” judging the other couples in the restaurant.

When their seemingly happily married best friends independently reveal to Claire and Phil that they are separating, Claire and Phil realise that their routine married life could use some shaking up. The next date night, they decide to head to New York and try out one of the city’s trendiest new restaurants. Unable to secure a table, they take the reservation of another couple — the Triplehorns — who appear not to have arrived. Their identities are mistaken and they become caught up as novices in a professional game of blackmailing, car-chasing, and double-crossing.

Fey and Carrell are charming as the Fosters, giving complexity to comedy characters that tend to be fairly 2-dimensional. Their shared quirks and sentence-finishing feels real, learned over years rather than forged over a table-read. Many of the jokes are improvised, which suits them well, having both started out as members of Second City, the infamous improvisation troupe in Chicago.

Although only an hour and a half long, it feels longer as they make a protracted effort to run from their pursuers, cajole those who are able to help them, and attempt to save their ailing relationship.

Much of the interaction with Mark Whalberg and some later scenes seem forced, giving Fey and Carrell little to work with. The result is a fairly typical rom-com style with unoriginal jokes and tepid physical comedy. The Fosters’ clumsy charm runs dry towards the very tightly wrapped-up ending, making it a lukewarm comedy that will easily pass 1.5 hours, but is ultimately aimed at a more mature audience and has a short shelf life.

Date Night opens in UK cinemas this Friday, 16th April.

[Image from Filmofilia.]

Recommended: Moon

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The Film: Moon (2009)
Director: Duncan Jones
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey

Moon is a haunting sci-fi thriller starring Sam Rockwell as mechanic Sam Bell, stationed alone on the far side of the Moon at a LUNAR complex that provides Earth with hydrogen power. Kevin Spacey voices his companion, or “assist robot”, GERTY.

Sam’s 3-year contract will soon expire and he will be able to return home to his wife and young daughter whom he has never met. When he has an accident on his way to repair a harvester, though, he soon discovers that there is more to the LUNAR mission than he had anticipated.

It is difficult to say much about Moon without giving away the startling and complex plot, suffice to say that it is superbly drawn and executed with finnesse. Rockwell’s performance is excellent, and Kevin Spacey’s reassuring robotic lilt keeps you guessing whether he is friend or foe.

Though it did not receive any Oscar nominations, Moon was widely considered as one of the films most snubbed by the Academy Awards. The film is currently widely available for rent and purchase.