Jerry Maguire

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Starring	Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr, Renee Zellweger
Director	Cameron Crowe
Year	1996
What it's worth		Full price (See this movie at whatever cost!)

Jerry Maguire is a study of a fellow who sometimes, every so often, tries to show courage and conviction despite his usual shallow, insecure self. Jerry Maguire, played with lots of energy and enthusiasm by Tom Cruise, is a sports agent, the kind that can talk to five different guys at the same time, remember the names of each of their wives, kids, and pets, and leave each feeling that he's Jerry's best friend. Jerry's a player, in a big way, but he has a nasty little conscience that rears its head from time to time.

In particular, the event that sets this movie in motion is when Jerry Maguire's conscience pricks him badly enough that he proposes the radical idea that sports agents should be more concerned with improving the quality of their relationships with their clients than the quantity of customers and money they can rake in. That streak of rampant idealism lands him the undying adoration of an office accountant played winningly by Renee Zellweger, and loses him every client he has save for Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr), a football player with lots of potential but bad attitude problems.

So, in a variation of the buddy road movie, Maguire and Tidwell are stuck with each other for a long journey, except in this case they're not crossing geographical territory, but growth territory. Can Jerry Maguire make something of his client, and can his client manage to help the process instead of hurting it? And also, not coincidentally, can he handle Zellweger's affection as something more than an excuse to not be alone?

This movie works a lot better than it should; in a three-paragraph sketch, it's already set itself up for more cliches and pat scenarios than you can stuff into a two-hour film. But the nice thing about Jerry Maguire is that it avoids a lot of the obvious gags, and goes instead for some originality, boosted by some snappy writing and great dialogue. The issue of whether Jerry really believes in his own morality or not doesn't get dropped into the background as an excuse for plot manipulation. Instead, it's a serious question about whether our hero is really going to be a hero, or a jerk who can't stick by his morals and can't get beyond superficial relationships, both professionally and personally.

Don't let all that fool you into thinking that this is actually a serious film, either, though. This is, at heart, a comedy, not a drama. We get reminded of that by the constant appearance of the accountant's too-cute- to-believe little boy and by Bonnie Hunt's sharp-tongued performance who introduces herself as "Hi, I'm the disapproving sister." Again, the dialogue puts this movie a step or two above the regular buddy flick it would otherwise be.

It's for that nicely-struck balance that I liked this movie. It's a hard film to classify, because it doesn't do the comedy enough to roll you out of your seat with laughter, but also handles its issues lightly enough that you can completely miss them if you're not watching carefully. It's a good choice to go see with a group of friends on a weekend night, or when you just feel like curling up for a couple of hours with some good entertainment. And that's not a bad recommendation for any film out there.

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