Jerry Maguire Rating * Has redeeming facet Directed and written by Cameron Crowe With Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renee Zellweger, and Jonathan Lipnicki.
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Writer-director Crowe (Say Anything and Singles) is a former music critic, so it should come as no surprise that there’s a lot of music in Jerry Maguire. Yet Crowe’s use of music is surprisingly uncritical. As in a TV commercial, the music is supposed to be immediately suggestive. But like a director of commercial spots, Crowe doesn’t show much restraint. The film is scored with a bewildering variety of songs–more than 30 of them–so none of them stick. (By contrast, the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” was played so often in Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express that it became part of the film’s personality.) Jerry Maguire’s score is formless and pointless, just like its love story.
In typical TV-commercial fashion, the characters in Jerry Maguire are constantly affirming feelings we don’t understand yet–we’re asked to take them on faith. Dorothy’s son begins hugging Jerry almost instantly, but we have no idea why. Jerry and Rod seem to interact only by yelling, which according to Rod means they’re finally communicating. But viewers are asked to accept as a friendship a relationship based solely on Jerry’s need for a client and Rod’s need for personal attention. The emotional gulf between these two feels monstrous, insurmountable, yet we’re supposed to believe they’re linked by more than moola. Despite Rod’s mantra of “Show me the money!” he claims that what he really wants is respect, loyalty, and love.
