I just can't do it. I just can't rubber stamp Jerry Maguire as a perfect romance/sports movie, let sleeping dogs lie, and recant the bash that I first wrote of it back when it was released. I'd like to say that I want to recant and am being stopped by higher journalistic ethics, but that's not really it. I just didn't like Jerry Maguire, and can't honestly send anyone to a film that compromises its own integrity so many times while claiming to be about integrity, ethics, ideals, and romance.
Jerry Maguire concerns (!you guessed it!) Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise), a sports agent who makes Arliss Michaels look like a two-bit hack. Maguire, faced with a kid who curses at him, decides to write a mission statement that states `fewer clients, less money.' When reality hits, he is fired for writing this statement (before you think of the conglomerate agency he works for as evil, remember that he is advocating something directly against business ethics… he is basically kamakazing himself), Jerry makes the sudden switch back into money-grubbing sports agent. Of course, a very public nervous breakdown that caused the mission statement kind of gets in the way of getting as many clients, so he's left with just two. And, when one of these clients drops him due to double talk by another agent, he's left with linebacker Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr) as his only income, no money, and a single-mother employee Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellwegger) to support.
>From here on in, the film is about as clear-cut as they come. Rod triumphs, Jerry triumphs, Dorothy triumphs and we're left listening to `shelter from the storm' as the end credits roll. But how does everyone triumph? By directly recanting on every moral stance they've taken, becoming the money-grabbing schmucks they loathed, and marrying to make medical plans simpler. Who are we kidding? Really?
Yes, Jerry Maguire sweeps you off your feet if your not looking for it, because Jerry Maguire is inundated with all of those things that sweep viewers off their feet. Nice sports scenes, decent sex scenes, memorable lines, vapid humor, and a soundtrack that you just want to own, but none of this holds up when placed under even the lightest of scrutiny. The acting may be wonderful, but the script is so uncreative and illogical that you might as well not ever bother.
Then, of course, you consider all of the little pet peeves that can annoy the hell out of any techhead. Take the sound mix. How the hell did an ex-Rolling Stone editor come out with such a terrible sound mix? In a restaurant, when the camera shifts back 5 feet, the sound is almost completely washed out. Dorothy, Jerry, and Rod are consistently overlit, so much so that if this is an artistic technique Crowe is using it to overkill levels. What happened with this Cameron Crowe fluke? Why does this film exist, and why was it nominated for Best Picture? Where the hell are Singles and Almost Famous when you need them?
Yes, some level of Jerry Maguire applies to me. I'm not a completely callous critic, immune to all sweet talking movie stars and devoid of a sense of romance. Nor am I a football-hating intellectual. But does this film complete me? I don't think so.
RATING: **1/2
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Cameron Crowe Writer: Cameron Crowe Starring: Tom Cruise, Renee Zellwegger, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jay Morh
James Brundage on Epinions: http://mk2k.epinions.com/user-mk2k
James' mailing list: http://filmcritic2000.listbot.com/
Short Stuff short film review: http://www.othercinema.com/~jbrundage/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews