Jerry Maguire (1996)

Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a sports agent, handling contract negotiations, merchandising deals and press duties for a variety of the best sportsmen and women in the US. Then, one night, he gets a moment of clarity and writes a memo to his colleagues about his vision for a different way of being sports agents - fewer clients, more personal attention, more support.
Jerry's firm, rather than being inspired, are appalled and fire him. He tries to take his best clients with him, but is only able to persuade Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr), a wide receiver for the Cardinals, to come with him, before his firm snatch everyone else. Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) loves Jerry and is inspired by his memo and agrees to come with him as well.
What then follows is Jerry's journey to try to secure a new contract for Tidwell, run his new company according to the values laid out in his memo and work out what he really wants from the relationship with Dorothy that quickly develops.
The film is very well known and much of it has entered the general consciousness, ("show me the money!", "you had me at hello", "you complete me") but what is interesting in watching it again recently is how fresh it all seems, how full of life rather than cliche. Jerry's initial romancing of Dorothy is a product of his own desperation to avoid loneliness, her desire to find a husband for herself and a father for her son, but its' ups and downs are handled with real honesty. Likewise, Jerry's professional relationship and then developing friendship with Rod has unusual shades for a Hollywood film. Lines such as, "how's your marriage, Jerry?" and "a real man wouldn't shoplift the pooty from a single mum" demonstrate a depth of friendship between them where they are able to ask the difficult questions that men these days are not supposed to ever bring up with each other.
It all builds up to a climax where lives are changed, epiphanies are experienced and tears are cried. It is a genuinely great film, full of winning performances, beautifully written characters, excellent scripting and none of those involved have been better, before or since, with the possible exception of Cruise in Magnolia. It's that good.