Jerry Maguire

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Brashly engaging.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Joyous redemptive romantic comedy.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Jerry Maguire is loaded with them: bright, funny, tender encounters between characters who seem so winningly warm and real. [13 December 1996, p.C-1]

Newsweek David Ansen

What 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.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A wholly unexpected film, as heady and surprising in its humor as in its emotional texture.

Time Richard Schickel

Altogether wondrous.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Firmly establishes Crowe as a standard-bearer of original thinking in the dispiritingly redundant state of American cinema. Don't miss this one.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Working from his own original screenplay, Crowe builds a story line full of unexpected twists and digressions.

USA Today Mike Clark

Overstuffed but exuberantly humane.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Magic 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.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Lusts 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.

Variety Todd McCarthy

An exceptionally tasty contempo comedic romance.

Film.com Sean Means

It 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.

Slate Sarah Kerr

A surprisingly fresh didactic comedy that preaches the hollowness of glamour and status and the American cult of winning.

Film.com Robert Horton

Once again writer-director Cameron Crowe has gotten all the little details just right.

Film.com John Hartl

The engine that drives Jerry Maguire is Cruise, giving the kind of performance that all but deconstructs his recent series of glib leading-man roles.

TNT RoughCut Graham Verdon

Any minor annoyances are eclipsed by great performances from the entire cast.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

What'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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A hip, funny, knowing romantic sports comedy that gets a little strained when it tries to expose its heart. [13 December 1996, Friday, p.A]

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Zellweger has the most interesting new face in film, and she knows how to use silences to say what the heart wants to get across.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There 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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Crowe 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.

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

Now "Rod Tidwell," with Jerry Maguire as a supporting character, would be a movie to pay to see.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Let'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.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The 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.

Dallas Observer Michael Sragow

An indictment--a prime example of promising material that's been Cruisified.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

A meandering and deeply shallow tale of spiritual redemption.