Jerry Maguire

Year of release : 1996

Run time : 2h19m

Genre : Comedy / Romance / Sports

Cast : Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bonnie Hunt, Regina King, Kelly Preston, Jay Mohr, Jerry O'Connell

The movie was written, directed and co-produced by Cameron Crowe.

The movie was inspired by a 28 page memo written by Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1991 at Disney, and by what happened to sports agent Leigh Steinberg (who was also the technical consultant for the movie) regarding his client, Tim McDonald (who makes a cameo appearance in the movie) in the 1993 NFL season, when free agency was first introduced.

Jerry is a sports agent, who, after being criticized by the kid of an injured player, has a change of heart, and writes a mission statement about how his job should be about caring for the clients, and having less of them, to be able to build a personal relationship with them.

Unluckily for him, a week later he is fired from his job, by his own protege!

In a nick of time, Jerry thinks he can call all of his clients to get them to stay with him, but unluckily, they all choose the firm, except for one, Rod Tidwell, one of his smallest clients, who is not satisfied with his pay.

Upon leaving the office, Jerry makes the announcement that he is starting his own company and asks if anyone wants to go with him.

The only one who wants to join him is single mother, Dorothy Boyd, who has a bit of a crush on him, because of what he wrote.

Jerry pays a visit to superstar quarterback Frank Cushman, hoping he'll stay with him, and his father tells him he decided he'll choose him if he came personally to talk to him, which he did,but refuses to sign a contract with him, saying his word is enough and a hand shake.

Jerry finds out after working for him for a while that they already signed a deal with his old firm, and they are just leading him on.

Jerry also tries to "sell" Rod to football executives.

Jerry has a strong fiancee, who is not happy with him not having any clients. Jerry gets angry at her lack of support, and breaks up with her. Which causes her to beat him up,leaving a bruise on his eye.

Jerry turns to Dorothy, as he's never been single, he just jumps from one woman to another.

Dorothy is a single mother, and her son seems to like Jerry. Luckily, the feeling is mutual.

Jerry is trying to get a good deal for Rod, as he and his wife, are very hard to please!

He asks Rod for advice on how to date a single mother, and Rod tells him his mother was a single mother, and you do not mess with a single mother, as she's not dating to have fun,but to get married, telling him to have a serious talk to her,if he doesn't love her (as Jerry heard her say to her sister that she loves him).

Instead of talking to her, he proposes to her when she is about to move out, as she needs the money and he can't pay her, to have her stay with him.

They get married, and unluckily for him, he is filmed while looking rather desperate on his wedding day, and Dorothy sees the footage, as it's being played for the whole family to see.

I personally enjoyed the movie, it was funny, has embarrassing scenes (for Jerry when he's fired and has the speech in front of his firm), and also made me cry (at the famous romantic lines everybody quotes in their movies,but also when Rod gets hit and the wife gets emotional and defends him in front of his brother and talks to Jerry) .

I got to see the scenes with the famous lines "Show me the money!" and "You complete me !" (which he says to her at the end based on something she says to him at the beginning, when they are in an elevator, and they see people who talk through the sign language, and Dorothy translates ) , and "You had me at Hello!", that so many other movies refer to.

The actors were good,the acting flows.

The soundtrack (the narration and certain scenes at the beginning when Jerry writes the memo) reminded me of Vanilla Sky (spoiler alert - it was written / made by the same people) . I liked it.

The movie received positive reviews from critics who loved the screenplay and the actors' performances.

Cinema Score audiences gave the movie an A, on an A+ to F scale.

The movie grossed 273.6 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 50 million, being the 9th highest grossing movie of 1996.

It was nominated for many awards among which, 5 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (for Tom Cruise),winning Best Supporting Actor (for Cuba Gooding Jr. ), 3 Golden Globes (Tom Cruise winning Best Actor), 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards ( Cuba Gooding Jr. winning Best Supporting Actor).

Cameron Crowe wrote the part of Jerry for Tom Hanks!

Janet Jackson auditioned and got the part of Marcee Tidwell, who went to Regina King in the end!

Jennifer Lopez, Kate Beckinsale, Cameron Diaz, Patricia Arquette, Winona Ryder, Marisa Tomei, Gwyneth Paltrow and Uma Thurman were considered to play Dorothy!

Damon Wayans was considered to play Rod, while Jamie Foxx auditioned for it.

Diane Lane was considered to play Avery (Jerry's fiancee), who ended up being played by Kelly Preston.

Viewer discretion is advised, as the movie contains nudity.

Rating : It's so money!