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91Brashly engaging.
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90Firmly establishes Crowe as a standard-bearer of original thinking in the dispiritingly redundant state of American cinema. Don't miss this one.
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90A wholly unexpected film, as heady and surprising in its humor as in its emotional texture.
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90Jerry Maguire is loaded with them: bright, funny, tender encounters between characters who seem so winningly warm and real. [13 December 1996, p.C-1]
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90What sets Jerry Maguire above any other romantic comedy this year is Crowe's writing. He captures the venal, high-stakes world of pro sports with deadly wit and an ex-journalist's sense of detail.
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90Altogether wondrous.
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90Joyous redemptive romantic comedy.
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88Working from his own original screenplay, Crowe builds a story line full of unexpected twists and digressions.
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88Overstuffed but exuberantly humane.
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88Magic on celluloid -- fresh, funny, romantic, and upbeat. You'll leave the theater with a smile on your face and perhaps a tear in your eye.
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87Lusts for a feel-good ending the material doesn't comfortably provide. One can't help wondering how dismal Jerry and Dorothy's life together will be after the credits roll.
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80It seems like nitpicking to say it, but the weakness of Jerry Maguire is that there's too much to it -- too many things happening at once for a viewer to digest. But with a charming cast like this, having too much isn't such a bad thing.
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80Once again writer-director Cameron Crowe has gotten all the little details just right.
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80The engine that drives Jerry Maguire is Cruise, giving the kind of performance that all but deconstructs his recent series of glib leading-man roles.
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80A surprisingly fresh didactic comedy that preaches the hollowness of glamour and status and the American cult of winning.
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80An exceptionally tasty contempo comedic romance.
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80Cruise is at the top of his form, and Gooding makes a brilliant opponent.
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80Any minor annoyances are eclipsed by great performances from the entire cast.
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78What's fascinating is the depth of humanity Cruise finds within the character of Jerry and also Cruise's generosity toward the other actors in the story -- a generosity that allows all the other performers to shine and create vivid and memorable characters.
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75There are a couple of moments in Jerry Maguire when you want to hug yourself with delight. Both of those moments involve the actress Renee Zellweger, whose lovability is one of the key elements in a movie that starts out looking cynical and quickly becomes a heartwarmer.
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75A hip, funny, knowing romantic sports comedy that gets a little strained when it tries to expose its heart. [13 December 1996, Friday, p.A]
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75Zellweger has the most interesting new face in film, and she knows how to use silences to say what the heart wants to get across.
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63Now "Rod Tidwell," with Jerry Maguire as a supporting character, would be a movie to pay to see.
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63Crowe is too much the good employee to spin the yarn properly, to give the picture the very integrity it endorses. He might have made a more convincing movie had he first convinced himself.
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50Let's get it out, loud and clear: Jerry Maguire is not a sports movie. It's a stealth chick movie, wrapped in a swaddling of jock stuff so that it gets through guy radar without setting off the missile defenses.
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An indictment--a prime example of promising material that's been Cruisified.
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50The film is all but crushed by Tom Cruise's screen-hogging demand that everything collapse and swoon around him. If the star gave us more of a rest, we might have more of a movie.
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40A meandering and deeply shallow tale of spiritual redemption.