Grown on me

I hadn’t seen this movie for 20 years and I never really connected to it as a teen.

As an older guy, I found it much more impactful.

I really liked how Jerry’s decision to live an authentic life came at great cost. Everything was stripped away, and even when he got married to the one person who believes in him the torture continued - she wanted them to separate.

The script really puts Jerry through the ringer, and it’s a long time before he catches a break at the end, which comes from an unexpected angle - a sports injury?

It was through his suffering and vulnerability that he forged the authentic relationships that made his victory at the end truly meaningful. I love how we see Jay Mohr’s Sugar try to fake-hug his client at the end and gets the cold shoulder - it perfectly captures what Jerry has earned and what Sugar (a mirror of Jerry’s prior self) lacked.


Most people live their lives from the outside-in - behaving as other people expect them to, checking every thought, word, and deed against what the herd might think of them, terrified to step out of line and risk unpopularity.

Jerry chooses to live from the inside-out, taking orders from his heart, not the herd. He leaves behind a big, fake life for a small, authentic one.

I like that.