Love and Jerry Maguire

One movie I often heard I just had to see was Jerry Maguire. Not being a fan of Tom Cruise it took me awhile to actually sit down and watch it but when I did I realized why everyone was so interested in it. It wasn’t your average romantic comedy where girl likes one guy but in the end falls for the jerk. Instead it seemed to show the difficulty of being the outsider; the one who thinks differently from everyone else. When Tom Cruise’s character Jerry writes a “mission statement” so far from what his firm is used to doing they fire him. To me while watching the movie and the way the characters interacted, love seemed to be defined by how much one could provide for the other. There was no emotional affection, no giving without the expectation of receiving something in return. The “love” between the characters was more superficial and selfish. For example, the relationship between Jerry and his girlfriend, played by Kelly Preston, was all about their career and the amount of money they made. So when she heard about his mission statement she wanted him to recant what he had said. For those of you who have not seen the movie his mission statement was about doing more for the client and building a stronger and more personal relationship with them as opposed to getting as many clients as possible and treating them like pawns in a chess game. Her reaction made Jerry realize that there was something wrong with their relationship, something was missing. Still he didn’t seem sure of what it was. Being the outside viewer it’s obvious that love and money was the correlation that seemed to make love possible with the characters of this film. The more money you made the more love you received. A great example of this was after Jerry got fired and was trying desperately to keep his clients; but one of his co-workers snaked all of them but one. He of course received all the attention and applause from the rest of the office while everyone seemed to stare Jerry down.

            Unfortunately, Jerry’s attempt to do the right thing and be a better person seemed to backfire temporarily. As the movie progressed and Jerry was forced to move forward with his mission statement alone with only the help of one accountant from his previous firm and his one last client he seems to learn what love really is and what really makes love possible. Through his client and his family and his accountant and her son Jerry begins to realize that love is not selfish or a means of profit. Instead, love is an emotional affection between people where we give and give and give and don’t expect to receive anything in return. Both his client’s wife, played by Regina King, and his accountant, played by Renee Zellweger, continually shows true love. Regina King’s character just wants what makes her husband happy and to make sure he gets what he deserves and has been promised. She seems to push Jerry towards a more honest way of business. Then there is his accountant who stands by his side and leaves her job at the firm, which provides her with more pay and benefits, to help Jerry keep to his mission statement because she believes in him and believes in what he said. All in all the film Jerry Maguire seems to show two different kinds of “love”, a selfish and profitable love and the unselfish and unconditional love.