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The first time I met Cameron Crowe of Jerry Maguire, I was home from film school for the summer, trying to improve my taste and know what I was “in”. One evening, I put on a Jerry Maguire show, thinking I’d be away from the silly Hollywood icon. But the movie blew my mind. It was obvious: Jerry Maguire was what I had. It was an interesting epiphany, if a little disappointing. I wanted to be classy, but the truth was I loved…schmaltzy romcoms.
Even as my tastes grew and grew, I kept coming back to Jerry Maguire. His kind nature is obscured instead: Jerry (an electrifying Tom Cruise) is a tireless sports assistant who struggles with personal and professional challenges to achieve success. But a reality the reason why it makes you happy is that Jerry’s difficult path changes him. He falls in love with Renee Zellweger’s Dorothy Boyd until they are already married and separation; no honeymoon-phase montage. The film’s romcom reputation is probably due to its climax: Jerry’s tearful, triumphant voice, which introduced the words “you’re over” and “you’re welcome” to the cultural lexicon. In romcom culture, where marriage is often coveted, this moment would be lead marriage.
In fact, Jerry Maguire’s writing recalls the 1930s joke about remarriage analyzed by philosopher Stanley Cavell in his 1981 study Pursuits of Happiness, that “the driving force behind his plot is not to bring the couple together, but to find them. behind together.” Unlike the modern romcom, which usually starts with two characters falling in love, Jerry Maguire the end and Jerry – already married to his love interest – fall sincerely in love.
For Jerry, love is tied to the concepts of loyalty and service: he earns the love of his customers by serving them, and expects loyalty in return. That equation goes awry early in the film, when Jerry is fired from his agency and only one of his clients, Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr), a mercurial wide receiver, follows him into his new venture. Similarly, Dorothy is the only one of Jerry’s colleagues to believe in his vision of a human organization characterized by “a few players and a little money”.
This is when Dorothy and Jerry fall in love – or rather, Dorothy falls in love with Jerry, and falls in love with the fact that he is loyal to her. But as Rod advises Jerry, that is no reason to marry someone. Rod’s romantic marriage to Marcee (Regina King) warns Jerry of what he lacks, which is commitment without expectation. Marcee is a big believer in Rod’s potential, but she loves him whether it happens or not. The same is true of Dorothy’s love for Jerry. “I love him for almost a man and,” he tells his sister Laurel (Bonnie Hunt), the words work approximately.
Jerry proposes to Dorothy when, realizing that their new business cannot afford an accountant, he decides to take a job near San Diego. Crowe’s portrayal of this moment, often a romcom thriller, emphasizes his tragic desperation. Marrying Dorothy is less a sign of Jerry’s devotion than a way of protecting his integrity: as a man, he can see in her what he can see in her. When the cautious Dorothy decides to give up – “I thought I was in love enough for both of us,” is how she explains the imbalance of their marriage – Jerry insists: “I’m not a fast boy, I stick.” But “sticking” for loyalty instead of love is not Dorothy’s idea of a happy marriage. He wants his life, why?
At the end of the movie, Jerry learns how to give. He falls in love with Dorothy when he realizes that she needs him even though there is nothing he can do for her, except to be there. A criticism often leveled at Jerry Maguire is that it’s too long and confusing, but it gets its big moment by putting Jerry and Dorothy on edge. Jerry’s speech not only fulfills the hope of the race – it is the “fulfillment of a new perspective on the situation” that Cavell notes is the description of the discussion of the remarriage game; and shows a deep human evolution. “I miss my wife,” Jerry says, crying because it’s the first time he’s ever felt that way. It always gets me.
