Best Actor 1996: Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire

Tom Cruise received his second Oscar nomination for portraying the titular character in Jerry Maguire.

I did not hate Jerry Maguire, nor did I exactly like it all that much, I guess I could say it was just okay.

Tom Cruise is an actor that I do not always like all that much, sometimes he can just plainly be annoying, or seem not to have what it takes with for a role. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to find that I did not respond to his performance in Jerry Maguire as I thought I would. I am surprised to say that this star performance of his actually works for me fairly well.

One reason for this is because he actually uses his own charisma, but also does develop a character along with it. Not that Jerry Maguire is the most complicated character ever but Cruise still takes the time to make him one opposed to just simply being Tom Cruise. Although most of the development is in the first ten minute or so, Cruise still does a good job of it. First being the artificial and cocky jerk, but again learning his morality again. This change is fast and very hasty, but I will say Cruise handles it very well, and makes the transition an actually believable transition despite the suddenness of it. 

Also I must say his charisma is much more apparent here than I feel it is in many performances. His star quality does actually shine through in this performance, and he is always a watchable presence throughout this film. He gives simply a very strong leading performance. He is entertaining, interesting to watch and very charming in this film. Despite the sometimes hokey in the romantic scenes with Renee Zellweger, they still work very well together, and Cruise is very strong in these scenes. Although the scenes is constantly mocked now their big end scene is incredibly well played by Cruise. Not an extremely heavy performance, or complicated one but a good one from Cruise showing his true abilities as a star.