An immensely likable movie. (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2001)

The reason this film succeeds despite initially appearing to have a poor premise is its fantastic writing. The characters at once seem like real people we can identify with, but not so mundanely 'real' that they forget to say something funny now and again. The dialogue is by and large NOT full of banal observations about the economic state of the sports industry, because Crowe wisely realises that the crowd who go to see romantic comedies will most likely not care about that aspect. What they WILL care about is mostly sympathetic characters, a believable central romance and an ounce of chemistry between the two leads. Crowe and his performers ensure that they get all that, and at times unexpectedly more too...
The film does occasionally lapse into sentimentality with the whole 'play with your heart, not for the paycheck' thing, but this is offset nicely by the charm of the leading players and Maguire's acknowledgement at the beginning that his 'rebirth' will sound "somewhat 'touchy-feely'..." The supporting characters are all so skillfully drawn too, that even if the central relationship doesn't quite work for you, you're sure to find something of interest in the more minor characters. A particular standout here is Jay Mohr as the slimy agent "Bob Sugar". He shows real talent here and it's a great surprise (possibly down to poor script choices) to see that he's still woefully underused by Hollywood.
Whilst Cuba Gooding Jr is fine here, I still cannot believe he won an Oscar for his performance, as he doesn't come anywhere near matching the other talent on show. I'm not saying that Cruise should have won an Oscar, but I could have understood that a whole lot more...
Great soundtrack too. You can tell as much care has gone into the composition of that as has the rest of the movie. A rare thing in today's market, that's filled with horrendous "Music inspired by.." rip-offs.
(At the time of writing... ) this is STILL the only Cameron Crowe film I've seen. Judging by the mostly glowing reviews heaped upon his other works, it seems safe to say that Jerry Maguire isn't merely a lucky one-off for this director. The film really is delightfully enjoyable to watch.