Jerry Maguire: Critic Reviews

Disarming acting, colorful writing and true generosity of spirit keep it right on track.

Cameron Crowe's overstuffed but exuberantly humane Jerry Maguire is a Tom Cruise vehicle that gives equal time to brilliantly cast co-stars in elaborately conceived roles.

Cruise seems to have grown as much as Jerry, for he brings gentleness, warmth and lightheartedness to this role, qualities that we haven't seen since he played air guitar in his underpants in Risky Business 13 years ago.

Cruise is at the top of his form, and Gooding makes a brilliant opponent.

There are a couple of moments in Jerry Maguire when you want to hug yourself with delight.

Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise, and Cuba Gooding Jr. are salesmen, and we're consumers, buying emotional truth. That's a brave message for a commercial film to have. Too bad it's unintentional.

You may come away from Jerry Maguire feeling a little dizzy, but once the film settles into afterthought, it provides plenty to think about.

Smartly written and boasting a sensational cast, Cameron Crowe's shrewdly observed third feature also gives Tom Cruise one of his very best roles...

Zellweger's sweetly intense performance is a star-making one, while Gooding shines in his fast-talking charm.

Jerry Maguire is a lovely film, and an extremely fun film full of moment-to-moment observation.

Cruise has never been this open or this funny.

Gooding does his finest work since Boyz N the Hood, positively glowing with this character's mixture of engaging brassiness and (occasionally misdirected) energy.

There's much to admire in Jerry Maguire, except Jerry Maguire.

You could do far worse than the quest for a reasonable adult happiness.

This is the kind of movie that reminds me why I started reviewing in the first place.

There is a recognizable ordinariness about the way these people stumble in and out of trouble, in and out of grace -- an ambiguous note, at once tart and sweet, knowing and innocent, in their relationships.

This is a wholly unexpected film, as heady and surprising in its humor as in its emotional texture.

Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy is well acted by Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. (in an Oscar-winning turn), but as a tale of redemption, the movie is not too deep and goes out of its way to satisfy viewers' expectations of a happy ending.

competently made parallel plotted film whose buddy sports film elements outshine its rom-com aspects.

Tom Cruise is in top form playing Jerry Maguire, a slick sports agent with a heart.

Even Cruise can't capsize Cameron Crowe's entertaining romantic drama.

A meandering and deeply shallow tale of spiritual redemption, built around the Teflon persona of Tom Cruise and driven by the conviction that all emotions worth expressing can be summed up in pop songs.

"Jerry Maguire" doesn't stop until it shows you the quan.