Brilliant Feel Good Movie

Rating: Null/10 (5 September 2004)

SPOILERS
In the world of sports, there came a time when the sportsmen cared less about the sport and more about the money. One of the reasons for this is that heinous of people, the sports agent. In "Jerry Maguire", Cameron Crowe has written a brilliant story about a man who realises the error of his ways and does things his way.
Staring Tom Cruise, "Jerry Maguire" tells the story of agent Maguire. Maguire is your typical, money obsessed, agent who is more concerned with the financial aspects than the person himself. Suddenly having a crisis of conscience, Maguire writes a booklet describing his views on where the industry is going wrong. Whilst truthful, this booklet has the negative effect of getting him fired. Leaving the office, Maguire finds himself with a single mum accountant (Renee Zellweger) and one remaining, extreme client (Cuba Gooding Jnr in an Oscar Winning Performance).
The beauty of "Jerry Maguire" is that it's yet another of these brilliant feel good movies, but it's one with brilliant acting and an equally superb script. Yes this film follows the simple script of negative, to positive, followed by a brief dip in the heroes fortunes before the typical conclusion. Crowe's script might follow this pattern, but ultimately it just works.
Perhaps the best thing about "Jerry Maguire" is just how amazing the acting is. Cruise turns in his best performance to date as the confused Maguire, whilst Zellweger might look like she's going to cry a lot, but she does a brilliant job showing us the emotional mother who falls for him. The two staring roles of this film are sadly not these two actors, but Cuba Gooding Jnr and Jonathan Lipnicki as Zellweger's cute little kid Ray. A lot of films feature children which annoy the audience and make us want to scream in annoyance. In contrast Lipnicki is superb as the funny little kid which makes the audience laugh and smile. It's a brilliant change from so many awkward child performances, and it helps make this film.
Therefore, to summarise, "Jerry Maguire" is a brilliant film. With brilliant performances and an excellent script, this film is simply superb. If you've never seen this film, go out now and make the effort. It's well worth it.