Ever noticed how after rewatching some movies you can think about the deeper issues in life? Stragely enought that's I found happening to me earlier last week when I got home late from work and found a cable station replaying "Jerry Maguire" (1996: Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger). Now it had been nearly 20 years since I've seen this movie. O yeah, I remember some of it's iconic lines that definatley made an impression on mainstream society. "Show me the money!" And to a lesser extent the romatic line of, "You complete me" or "You had me at hello."
Though I would not classify "Jerry McGuirre" as a romantic comedy, this is clearly a movie that has a main romantic component to it; the buddind romance between a down-on-his-luck sports agent and the girl from his office that has a cruch on him. I would classify this Cameron Crowe classic as a drama with a central romantic storyline. Not a romantic comedy because not enough emphasis is placed on comedy, but rather this movie takes itself rather seriously.
But getting back to the crux of this post, and why I was moved to write it. Upon rewatching "Jerry McGuire" I was struck by the the romantic angular trajectory of its leads: the Tom Cruise title character, and of course the girl-in-wating, Renee Zellwegger's charachter.
Let's start out by looking at the title charachter, Jerry McGuire as played by Tom Cruise. He starts out as a fashionable, trendy sports agent. On top of the world with a gorgeous, but very worldy girlfriend as played by Kelly Preston. Jerry's quite happy with his life untill a fellow top agent informs Jerry that he's being fired from the sports agency that he originally founded. This prideful agent then makes an attempt at saving face by seeing if he can sweep other fellow employees as he attempts to breakout on his own and make a name for himself all over again. This doesn't set well with his worldly girlfirend, and they end up fighting and breaking up.
The girl-in-waiting, Renee Zellweger's character, is a one parent mother of a boy who is secretly in love with the flamboyant sports agent. She sees the man he could be, and is sold on that vision. To me, Renee's character was VERY BORING. She's merely a romantic hopeful, a girl wanting to get swept off her feet.
But though this movie really isn't a romantic comedy I did glean something off it that is very romantic comedy in nature: one's own , unique romantic trjectory. What I mean by saying "one's own, unique romantic trajectory" is how open or how closed you are to the romantic prospects around you. In this movie, Jerry McGuirre starts off as being oblivious to the girl in the office who has a crush on him, BUT over the course of the movie his fondness towards her grows. THIS is the heart of the movie, and what really draws you in. It's Jerry's character arc from a worldly, career-driven sports agent to a more grounded guy who falls in love with the girl the audience ultimately wants him to end up with.
Jerry Mcguirre's romantic traectory changes in this movie. He starts out closed to the prospect of going after the girl in waiting, but after he gets to know her, and loses his own worldly girlfriend his romantic trajectory changes.
Renee Zellweger's romantic trajectory remains pretty constanst thoughout this movie. She wants some spice to her life, and sees promice in Jerry McGuirre.
Anyway this movie got me to thinking about how open or closed can be towards the prospect of a potentially life-changing romance. If a worldy guy like Tom Cruise's Jerry Mcguirre can wake up and smell the roses, maybe some of us romantic dolts out there can do the same.
Hope. One of the keys things romantic movies do is give hope to the hopeless.
I guess I really responds to such messages because I view myself as relatively hopeless. Hey, when you reach the age of 46 and are STILL single looking for the someone special trust me, you lose hope. The cool thing about movies like "Jerry Mcguirre" is that theu open your mind to the possiblitiy that good-looking-as-all-fuck people have problems to--or theoritically CAN have such problems as the rest of us. We all have issues, problems and uncertainty that enters into our lives, BUT if we're open to it, love can enter in and biring us to a higher, more fullfilled place.
So hats off to Cameron Crowe for crafting this masterpiece. I hope after reading this post you'll re-watch Jerry Mcguirre and maybe even contemplate the same thoughts I did concerning "romantic trajectory". See if I'm off my rocker or not, and if any of the deeper themes of this classic movie, "Jerry Mcguirre", could possibly apply to you, and maybe even help you become a more self-aware, and contented person. Rom-coms and romantic drama movies shouldn't make you feel worse. They should make you feel better about yourself. So let the deeper themes and takeaways of GREAT movies like "Jerry Mcguire" take you away and to a place of higher self-awareness and enlightenment.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA