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Tom Cruise has worked with Scorsese, Spielberg, Stone, Kubrick, Mann and a whole host of other top directors. However, it's possibly Cameron Crowe, the Californian ex-Rolling Stone contributing editor that has given the world the most charming and well-acted performance of Cruise's very impressive resume. Cruise plays Jerry Maguire, an excellent sports agent who is becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his occupation due to a number of reasons concerned with the direction his company is heading. Inadvertently, by writing a mission statement aimed at improving business practices, he gets fired from his position. Consequently, he goes solo as an agent, only taking Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) with him in his new venture and pinning all of his hopes on the inconsistent career of American football player Rod Tidwell, played by the necessarily over-the-top Cuba Gooding Jr. The three leads make this schmaltzy foundation work, delivering the memorable "You had me at hello" and "Show me the money!" lines effortlessly without going too far down the romantic comedy route. After all, as Crowe makes the audience aware of from the very start, this is a movie about a professional sports agent first, and falling in love conveniently follows to snatch the memorable scenes. What the writer/director doesn't directly say though is that this film is coated in a thick layer of criticism aimed at capitalist society. The overtones are dictated by Dickie Fox, Maguire's mentor, and the mission statement which sparks the whole story, curing the thoughts of the audience that being a professional sportsman is getting more and more ridiculous as a result of silly amounts of endorsement deals and salaries. While we are given room to think about the difficulties surrounding Cruise's character, Crowe progresses the story, developing the relationship between Jerry and Dorothy, intertwining a glorious soundtrack, a decent degree of realism, and the famous rants of Tidwell.
Cruise and Gooding Jr. are absolutely first-rate with both delivering career-best performances. Everyone is aware of the latter's emotional acceptance speech at the 1997 Academy Awards, and Cruise should probably have been granted the similar honour later on that night. Zellweger doesn't particularly dazzle the screen even though Crowe's third directorial effort acted as her mainstream breakthrough. Jay Mohr, Bonnie Hunt and Kelly Preston are entertaining support, with all three having memorable encounters with the compelling Jerry Maguire. Crowe thankfully keeps the on-field action to a minimum, avoiding the predictable cliches and concentrating more on the characterization and wholesome storytelling of his superbly written piece.
The extras
The commentary on Disc One with Crowe, Cruise, Gooding Jr. and Zellweger is excellent, but the same commentary is even better on Disc Two acting as a video commentary. Highlights of the observations include Cuba saying, "My God Tom, you really convey the emotion so well here, that's why you get paid so much, eh?!" to which Cruise simply exclaimed "Shhhhh!" The deleted scenes and rehearsal footage are good additions, especially when you consider that you also have the option of watching them with the director and editor commentary. The "Show me the money!" rehearsal is very interesting to see even if it's very short. A Rod Tidwell commercial, the 20-minute "Making Of", Bruce Springsteen music video, "How to be a Sports Agent" featurette, and full mission statement are all very welcome additions to a very good package. DVD-ROM features are also available in addition to the standard filmographies and theatrical trailer. The lack of a high-quality documentary though means that this Collector's Edition unfortunately doesn't quite score full marks.
The summary
Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. "show us the money" as we see a strong protagonist hit his personal and professional lows on his way to learning the important values in life. An old-fashioned base for present-day capitalist cutthroat troubles.
