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Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger star in "Jerry Maguire."
Jerry Maguire is more than a Cruise flick, it's a good movie
By Henry Sheehan
The Orange County Register
Tom Cruise gives his liveliest and most engaging performance in several years in "Jerry Maguire," a first-class skewering of the world of sports agents written and directed by Cameron Crowe.
Remembering that you have to love your characters even as you satirize their pursuits, Crowe has crafted an often-wicked rendering of what befalls a young man on the make when he suddenly discovers his conscience and then realizes, to his chagrin, that the noisy voice won't be satisfied with just an inch.
Cruise's character, Jerry Maguire, a highly successful sports agent, loses his comfortable agency job because he stays up one night during a company retreat held by his high-powered firm, Sports Management International.
Wired on caffeine and plagued by the memory of his own less-than-selfless behavior, he writes a company mission statement suggesting that the agency shed itself of some clients in order to elevate personal relationships above pure profit.
Initial kudos soon give way to the corporate boot, and Jerry finds himself suddenly self-employed with only two clients, Rod Tidwell and college quarterback Frank Cushman (Jerry O'Connell). As...