Touchy-Feely But Fun

Rating: 7/10 (9 November 2009)

The best thing in the DVD of "Jerry Maguire" is not even the movie itself. It's the complete text of the title character's controversial "Mission Statement", invested by writer-director Cameron Crowe with the same passion, humor, and character-consciousness that drove his Rolling Stone profiles and script for "Fast Times At Ridgemont High".
The movie is pretty good, too.
Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a high-flying agent about to sign the most-prized NFL recruit in the country when a crisis of conscience forces him to write and distribute the aforementioned mission statement. Summararily canned by his agency, he's forced to scramble to save his career, with the help of his assistant Dorothy (Renée Zellweger) and their one client, head-case wideout Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.)
With this movie, it becomes clear that Cameron Crowe took the ball from John Hughes and ran with it. The kind of films Hughes used to make, of weepy love scenes and whipsmart wisecracks set against an esoteric pop score, are the kind of films Crowe makes, only with adults. In that way, "Jerry Maguire" satisfies.
What grates about this movie, and more with other Crowe films like "Almost Famous", is the way people speak to each other in the form of taglines rather than actual human speech. "Just jump right into my nightmare, the water's warm!" "I'm her disapproving sister." "I've had three lovers in four years, and all of them ran a distant second to a good book and a warm bath." "That's more than a dress. That is an Audrey Hepburn movie." "Help me help you!"
At least Crowe has the good sense of turning the last line into a running joke. He also is helped, unlike "Almost Famous", with the kind of top-notch cast that can make the most of groaner lines like the almost-infamous "You complete me".
Cruise is electric on screen, finding the perfect channel for his high-energy persona in the always-on Jerry. Zellweger has a lot of gooey moments, but extracts every ounce of rightness from them to make for a compelling emotional center. Jay Mohr as a rival agent is a wonderfully hateful foil. I can hear him say "Whatever" now.
Gooding won an acting Oscar for "Maguire". Watching him, you understand why. Every time the film seems ready to sag into some touchy-feely moment, his Tidwell is on hand to keep things hopping and real. I can't say I understand why exactly Jerry is constantly questioned about the honesty of his feelings for Dorothy, though it is a major theme of the film's last hour. It's probably why "Jerry Maguire" is not a guy film despite the sports setting. When people talk and talk so openly about their feelings, I feel like a nun at a Sam Peckinpah double-feature.
This film didn't quite have me at hello, but kept me watching longer than I expected. Give Crowe credit for investing his chick flick with enough humor and energy to keep things from getting too soft. Give Cruise and the rest of the cast praise for strong performances around the horn. And give Dicky Fox a big salute for that fabulous final line. I wish you the same thing he did.