The film Jerry Maguire seems to portray the message that love is the threshold upon which success blooms. It seems to suggest that inspiration paired with commitment is the pathway to this love, and that if one doesn’t have love in their life things will eventually fall apart. The film also purports that experiencing love in one relationship can simultaneously spark the appearance of love in another. Overall, all of the above said things lean to proving the simple fact that love grows. It doesn’t begin in full force with commitment and approving a lack of make-up.
Love starts out like it does for the characters Jerry Maguire and Dorothy Boyd, with a strange and awkward yet somehow kind meeting in an airport. An interesting “knight-in-shining-armor” moment occurs which forces the underground attraction between the two to move up a level. What woman wouldn’t love that the hot-shot of the company she works for is willing to help her find her young son in the middle of a crowded public place? The attraction then builds when Dorothy, spurred by the inspiration and fairness supplied in Jerry’s mission statement, agrees to leave the large corporate company in favor of working for Jerry. For Jerry, Dorothy’s decision was what allowed him to continue passionately pursuing his career. For her, passion and the desire to create a company that allows personal connections with clients is enough for her to walk away from a stable paycheck to support herself and her son. Both of them are seeing their relationship to the other through an individual lens. This places an interesting spin on Feminist theorist Simone de Beauvoir’s claim that “humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being” (de Beauvoir). Both male and female in this situation define themselves in relation to what the other can provide, and in this way neither are autonomous. This causes the relationship between the two to be more static, and forces this notion that to them is love, to grow faster. The constant close connection between the only two workers at Jerry’s new company creates intimate opportunities for even more attraction to grow like moments where Jerry interacts with Dorothy’s son Ray.
The relationship Jerry develops with Ray can be seen as the force that truly pulls Dorothy further into the relationship, as her son was without a father figure. She thinks she loves him because her son does. And as one can see, the relationship develops into something like love. Each party needs the other for a particular purpose, although the relationship between the two never really develops beyond what role they need the other to fulfill.
Of course, the Hollywood happy-ending ties all of those ragged and love rejecting ends together. The development of the way this couple experiences love must come full circle in order for the audience to see a shift in Jerry Maguire’s character.
Jerry says, “Tonight our little company had a very big night… but it wasn’t complete… because I couldn’t share it with you.” He comes to realize that having success and having someone worth sharing that success with are synonymous. Witnessing his client being able to share his success with his wife, allows Maguire to realize that he needs that same ability. Does love create success? Jerry Maguire says yes. Jerry Maguire also says that passion and the drive to keep that love alive are necessary ingredients.
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Works Cited
Beauvoir, Simone De. "Simone De Beauvoir The Second Sex, Woman as Other 1949."Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 25 July 2011.
Jerry Maguire - YouTube. Dir. Cameron Crowe. Perf. Tom Cruise and Johnathan Lipnicki. TriStar Pictures, 1996. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. YouTube, 14 June 2008. Web. 25 July 2011.
U Had Me at Hello - YouTube. Dir. Cameron Crowe. Perf. Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger. TriStar Pictures, 1996. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. YouTube, 07 Apr. 2007. Web. 25 July 2011.
