Why I Love to Hate Cameron Crowe

Rating: 6/10 (25 March 2008)

Sitting alone in my living room on the sunny, yet frigid eve of Easter Sunday 2008 amidst six inches of snow that was dumped upon the Chicagoland suburbs the day before. Fueled by nicotine and caffeine I found myself straightening up my apartment and channel surfing when I happened upon an early morning screening of Jerry Maguire on TNT. That's right Jerry Ma-freakin-Guire. I found myself completely and utterly intrigued and drawn in despite the fact that I've seen this movie somewhere in the vicinity of 10-20 times before, typically on random weekend days on basic cable. First things first, I HATE, capital H through E, Renee Zelwegger and the charm of Tom Cruise died for me somewhere between Top Gun and his ill-conceived notion to pick up where L. Ron Hubbard left off on the proliferation of Scientology tip. And don't sleep on little Jonathon Lipnnicky, the cute little over-sized glasses wearing son of Zelwegger's character in the film, speaking of which, has he gotten arrested for marijuana/cocaine possession yet or fallen into the child-star trap yet? As I digress.
Anyway, without even realizing it  it happened  the film had my undivided attention and I became emotionally invested in the subtle intricacies of the dialogue and was provoked to the point of inspiration, which in my humble opinion is truly one of the greatest pleasures on Earthbut to arrive at this point watching Jerry Maguire? What was wrong with me  had I become a softy in my late 20s? I even found myself getting the chills and near-tearing up as the relationship between Jerry (played by Cruise) and Rod Tidwell (Oscar winning performance by Cuba Gooding Jr.) progressed and Jerry left himself emotionally vulnerable, which apparently is atypical of your big shot sports agent in this day and age, only to win back his wife Dorothy (played by Zelwegger) with one of the more memorable lines in recent film history  'you had me at hello'.
I then began realizing that despite my anti-Hollywood, screw all major studio releases attitude cultivated sometime between my junior year of high school and becoming a film studies major during my college days in Madison, WI, I did not hate Columbia TriStar or Cruise or Zelwegger or even Cuba (Gooding Jr.  not the home of Fidel Castro people). My hate was centered on Cameron Crowe, the only man with the verbiage and directorial skills to make me give a rat's arse about a movie like Jerry Maguire. The relate-ability of every facet of every relationship and every exchange between these actors that I truly love to hate is so deceivingly obvious and spot-on that I can't help but succumb to the magnetism and emotion of the scenes as they play out. I'm still watching the film and having this epiphany and rather than admit that it's the film I enjoy, I start shaking my head in disbelief amidst teary eyes and thrust all of the recognition and responsibility for the way I'm feeling on Mr. Crowe. I feel vindicated in doing so rather than chalk Jerry Maguire up as another guilty pleasure of mine, kind of like the Hanson song MMMBop. It's then that I decided I needed to write this, if not for the therapeutic function that it's currently providing me, but more so because I feel I owe it to Mr. Crowe.
I'm a proud purveyor of classics like Fast Times at Ridgemont High (granted Amy Heckerling directed it), Say Anything and Almost Famous. I'm still trying to be half the man Lloyd Dobbler was in courting (pun intended) Diane Court and churning out 'In Your Eyes' through his ghetto blaster and longed to have experienced the 70s rock scene like William Miller in Almost Famous. Those films equally capture me emotionally, spiritually, have terrific soundtracks and when mixed together in only the way Cameron Crowe can - they inspire me to believe that possibilities are limitless and that anything can happen and eventually, will happen. And when they do, they'll inevitably involve me getting with the perfect girl amidst the backdrop of the perfect song to capture the all-encompassing essence of purity, honesty and lovewhether it is for Diane Court, Stillwater or Dorothy BoydAnd that is why I love to hate, but really just plain admire Mr. Cameron Crowe  or maybe I just enjoy his films. Either way, I think I made my some kind of point, right?