No one delivers old-school dramady like Crowe

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2010)

I finally re-watched this after about ten years, and it's still great after all this time. No one can bring out the emotion and heart out of, what in any other writer director's hands, would have been just another romantic comedy. Crowe's script is funny, warm and thoughtful, and he brings out the best in his cast. Cruise is as charming as ever, and Crowe's script offers a deconstruction of the typical shark character Cruise can play with ease by giving him a wife to not only love, but rely and depend on. Zellweger is charming and really pulls off playing a single mom without feeling too much like a movie star. Gooding Jr's Oscar-winning performance is delightful, but characters like (the perfect) Bonnie Hunt as Zellweger's "disapproving" sister or Jay Mohr as a scum-bucket agent bring out the natural charm and joy in Crowe's script and stop Cruise and Zellweger from turning the picture into just another romance.
What really sets Jerry Maguire apart however is the focus that a successful marriage depends on both husband and wife giving themselves over to each other completely. What a great message in a world where most big romantic films end just as the real relationship begins.