mymichele's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Hanks, A whole lot of stuff on Jerry Maguire, and mormons Well, hi. As you can see, I've become rather apathetic toward entries in general as of late. I don't really know why.. but maybe since I've been here a year, I'm gonna start cutting down on the entries. I dunno. Maybe I'm just not feeling the love again. I'm a nerd. Tomorrow will be the whole year anniversary gala. I know you're looking forward to it as much as I am. Today I am going to be very pop culture whorish. Last night I had the pleasure of watching AFI's lifetime achievement award to Tom Hanks. I've always loved Tom Hanks.. he was my first movie star crush when I was 8 years old. I truly appreciate all his work and everything he's done. It was a great show last night, and I really enjoyed all the movie stars that were there because they were the ones I grew up watching. Meg Ryan, Steve Martin, Elizabeth Perkins.. all of the people on stage for Tom Hanks. It was neato frito. So, I am rereading "Lost Boys" by Orson Scott Card for about the 5th or 6th time. I'm not sure why I love this book so much.. I gave it to my dad to read and he pretty much hated it. The family in it is Mormon, and while I don't have much experience with Mormons (except for sitting in the backseat of a car with one for two weeks during the longest road trip of my life.. she got really excited when she saw the mormon churches.. it was quite exciting) I found this book to be fascinating. I think it's the way that the husband and wife communicate with each other and the kids. They all have so much faith in each other, and I love that. It really makes me wonder what I'm going to be like with my only family, and how I should try to raise my own kids. Ah, well, anyway. I just watched Jerry Maguire, and I have decided that it's my offical favorite movie. Maybe it's the college student in me, but I was inspired to take notes during the movie, and now I present to you: 20 REASONS WHY JERRY MAGUIRE IS THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER! 1. The whole scene on the plane. When Jerry meets that other agent chick and he tells her the engagement story of him and Avery, it's just a funny story. He tells it like Avery kinda humbled him and then since all the cameras were there, he felt like he had to propose. Ya know? It just kinda shows how he always felt obligated instead of doing things that felt right. 2. Also in the plane, when Ray asks his mom what's wrong and she says "First class is what's wrong. It used to be a better meal, and now it's a better life." And then they both start giggling. I think it's cute that even though he's a little kid, he can see how silly his mom is, and she can realize that first class is just the least of her problems. 3. When his coworkers throw him an engagement party and they all watch the engagement film with all his ex girlfriends.. I think that's funny. He watches in horror as they all make fun of him and make him realize that he really can't be alone, and that no one really takes him seriously after all. 4. When Jerry gets fired, all this crap happens at once. First of all, Bob Sugar, played by the great Jay Mohr, tells him to not be so selfish! He had to fire his mentor, can he please not think about himself for a minute! And then when Jerry expects his secretary to go with him, she's like, "Uh, I'm 3 months away from the pay increase, sorry about that." And then it goes from her to him and and back to her, and when it comes back to her she's looking down at the desk like nothing ever happened, like she never really gave a damn about working for him anyway. 5. The divorced women's group. They are in like 3 different scenes, and each scene is very pivotal to the movie, especially the last one. But I'll get to that later. Anyway, they all talk about how they don't trust men and how women are backstabbers and yada yada yada, and Jerry is out there trying his best to hold on to what he has, and it's just greatness. 6. When Jerry thinks he has Cush's dad on his side, and when he thinks that everything is suddenly going right after being so wrong, he gets in the car and wants to sing really loud.. he goes right past 3 different songs that he kinda knows the words to onto.. Tom Petty. And "Free Fallin" really fit that moment, and it just shows a. how music can really fit a situation and b. how universal Tom Petty is! 7. Kelly Preston. She is sooo awesome as Avery. She's a bitch, sure, but she doesn't fuck around. She loves Jerry, but she won't pretend that what he did is okay when really he just screwed their lives up. I don't think she's ever been so good in a movie before.. oh, maybe For the Love of the Game. (Just kidding, but hey! I really like that movie!) 8. When Dorothy's sister Laurel (Bonnie Hunt) says to Dorothy (Renee Zellwegger) that Jerry "better not be good looking" and then in comes the epitome of American good-lookingness, Tom Cruise.. that always makes me giggle. At least in my heart. 9. The whole conversation in the kitchen when Ray and Jerry are in the living room talking about their dads and such, where Laurel wants Dorothy to be more responsible and when Dorothy just wants to go have a good time for once. If that made any sense. 10. Just all the relationships in general.. there's alot going on in this movie: a. Jerry and Ron Tidwell - Ron keeps Jerry as his agent even when Jerry is going insane in life in general. Ron gives Jerry advice about single moms, Ron is there for him as his friend when he needs it. It's loyalty, and it's a good thing to have between men. b. Jerry and Dorothy - she loved his memo, and she risked her career to go off with him on the strength of that one memo. They fall in love, and they have a rocky start, but he realizes he doesn't want to live without her. It's just a real love story. c. Jerry and Ray - Ray, Dorothy's son, loves Jerry and they have this really special bond. He is what keeps the relationship together. Jerry finds in Ray what he can't find in himself, a unique innocence that he once had but lost a long time ago. d. Dorothy and her sister - Dorothy wants to make the wrong choices but her sister doesn't want to let her. She's the voice of reason because obviously she doesn't have much of a life and doesn't want to see her sister go down the same path. e. Jerry and Avery - They are both professionals in the same business and so they understand each other on a professional level, but they never quite understood each other on a personal one. They thought they had the perfect relationship until all the superficial stuff was taken away. f. Ron and Marcy - Rod Tidwell and his wife make everyone jealous with their real, true love. They have something special and everyone around them knows that. It's something good to see. 11. Laurel in general is a good character in this movie. She gives her sister and Jerry and everyone else in the movie meaningful looks and just tries to bring everyone back to reality. The problem is, nobody wants reality when they see it everyday. 12. When Dorothy tells Laurel she's the oldest 26 year old in the world. "You know what other women my age are doing right now? Going to clubs, having fun.. they're trying to get a man, trying to keep a man. Not me, Laurel, I'm trying to raise a man." I love that. It makes her sound so wise and you almost want her to go get a little out of control. 13. The conversation the morning after she and Jerry sleep together, when she's talking to Laurel and she says "I love him, I do. I love him, and I don't care what you think. I love him for the man he wants to be and the man he almost is." She never says she loves him for the man he is anyway, and that just really says alot. Also, the fact that he hears that probably isn't so good for anyone. 14. When Rod and Marcy come to Jerry's office and Marcy goes crazy and asks Jerry what he stands for, and Dorothy goes off on her and says she doesn't even know what to tell her son in a world full of "show me the money!" and other such things, and everyone is shocked that she actually stood up for herself. It's a good time. 15. "A real man wouldn't shoplift the pootie from a single mother." 16. The wedding video. Everyone in that room sees how, during the wedding, Jerry looks really uncomfortable and he's wiping his brow and looking like that's the last place he ever wants to be. And then we see Dorothy looking at it like she can't believe it, and then from far away we can see Jerry. They're standing together, but far away. And she looks over at him, like "My god, what did we do?!" 17. When Dorothy and him have the discussion about how his road trip is really a nice long break, and how she says on the surface everything looks perfect, "Gee, I have this great guy who really seems to love my son, and wow, he really seems to like me a lot." And that hits home. And he goes to see Ray while he's sleeping, and he tells the fish that he took from his old job "It was only supposed to be a mission statement.." and then he cries. *sigh* 18. Rod's concussion and that whole scene surrounding it. It still makes me cry everytime I see it, especially when Marcy calls Jerry and says "My whole life is this family! It just doesn't work without him!" Oh yeah, that does it to me. And when he gets hurt on the field and his little boy looks sad, Marcy goes and holds him and says, "What does Daddy always say?" And he said, "It always looks worse than it is." Awww. Poor little boy. And the scene at the end when Rod comes out of the locker room with all the press hounding him, and all he says is "Where's Jerry?" And then they hug, and he calls Marcy and he starts crying. Awww. 20. "You complete me." Jerry just says this with so much emotion.. he says it right in the middle of the divorced women's group and there's a close up of him and he knows he has to say it and he really feels it, and I love that! Good god almighty! And the great and wonderful Cameron Crowe wrote this. He's a damn genius, let me tell ya! This is a real love story, and it has all these subtle undertones to it, and you can't see all the little nuances the first time you see it, you have to watch it a bunch of times to really get to the bottom of it. I really love this movie. I was never a huge fan of Tom Cruise, but he's the perfect guy to place this. He is incredible in this movie. I can't believe I wrote so much on one movie. I could write a thesis on this or something. Anyway.. I'll be writing a long one tomorrow. 10:09 p.m. - June 25, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||