What's it all about, Jerry?

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2010)

Jerry Maguire is a movie about a sports agent who tries to go it alone by injecting heart into his relationship with his clients. To do this he needs fewer clients. His employer complies by firing him for his 'subversive' ideas. The title character, played by Tom Cruise, is not the most sympathetic of guys, and Cruise does not seem to know how to play him. He alternates from sentimental calm to over the top wild.
Cruise's remaining client, a footballer played by Cuba Gooding, Jr., is an unlikeable and also over the top character. Gooding, Jr. plays him as a greed-driven, wild and noisy moron-jock. Gooding, Jr. is actually quite repulsive here, extremely annoying when on the screen (Oscar for what?).
I am not a football fan (don't even understand it), so the scenes of the game were no boost for me. I do know enough to notice that Gooding, Jr. seems way too small to play a pro.
It is hard to understand what this story is about, and the movie does nothing to clue us in. I found Jerry Maguire to be marginally entertaining, mostly due to Renee Zellweger and a host of cameos by the likes of Beau Bridges, Eric Stoltz, etc. JM is worth a look on a rainy Sunday afternoon when there is nothing better available and no game on.