Review of Jerry Maguire (1996) by Valentina L — 18 Aug 2012

If anyone can make a sports film entertaining, then of course it's Cameron Crowe, yet it's all fun and game until your runtime dances close to ten minutes shy of two-and-a-half hours. Now, again, this is Cameron Crowe, and he's awesome, so the runtime isn't terribly overbearing, but really, maybe just under 140 minutes is going a bit overboard, because "Almost Famous" seemed to have more going, and it wasn't but about a couple of minutes over two hours. Well, in all fairness, Crowe did come back for that awesome extended cut... that ran just over 160 minutes. No matter which version you watch, "Almost Famous" is essentially one of the greatest films ever made, but I'll be the first to admit that the extended cut maybe went a little bit too far. Well, hey, at least we're fortunate enough to have an actually tighter version of "Almost Famous" somewhere out there, whereas with this film, we're stuck for a while. Eh, whatever, this film is still good enough for me to not mind too much, and I suppose I'm not the only one who doesn't mind sitting through this film, as the box office did indeed "show Cameron Crowe the money". Seriously though, the point is that this film is an awarding one-I mean, Best Supporting Actor should have gone to Ed Norton for "Primal Fear"-I mean, a rewarding one (Certainly better than "Primal Fear"; but seriously, that Oscar was all Ed), yet it's hardly stellar, for although this film stands as worthwhile, the film's having you caught isn't quite as simple as, "Hello".

At the beginning, I state that if anyone can make a sports film entertaining, then it's Cameron Crowe, and sure enough, the film entertains pretty firmly much more often than not, yet even if you're the guy who followed this film up with one of the most delightful films ever made, you can still only do so much to battle back the suspiciously all too common misstep of slowness within a sports film before you succumb, and as if that's not enough of an awesome testament to the slowness of sports films, this film's sports aspects are borderline tertiary. Well, that sure as sunshine didn't stop this film from donning slow spots, which are limited in effectiveness, yet nevertheless remain present in many spots and detrimental to the steam of the film, leaving momentum to limp along and leave you to run the risk of falling of the film for a moment. Still, it's not entirely like this film needs those slow occasions to lose you, because, really, as well-directed and as extremely well-written as the film is, its story is simply not all that grand of one, not quite having enough juice in it to capture your fully investment, and it's made all the worse by the fact that the film is, of course, just too blasted long. A film that should have run 100-something or 120-something minutes clocks in at nearly 140 minutes, and those 20-to-40 minutes make a tremendous difference, for although the film isn't necessarily plagued by overwhelmingly loose scenes or repetition, it covers way too much, and with not quite enough dynamicity to sustain consistent intensity within the intrigue. Things definately pick up after a while, but it's a really long while before you finally get there, and between the pick-ups, there's not a tremendously firm bite to the film, and that bite is made all the softer by the film's taking its sweet time to reach its pay-offs, which rarely ever "show you the money" as much as they should to begin with. Now, there really isn't a whole lot to complain about, and what there is to complain about isn't especially stinging, yet this is another case where small faults make huge differences, and with this film having neither the bite nor tightness to fully grip your intrigue, the result is a film that leaves quite a bit to be desired, though not necessarily a whole lot, because, come on, this is Cameron Crowe we're talking about. Now, Crowe is definately no David Fincher or anyone like that, and doesn't do a especially upstanding job with this film, yet he ultimately hits considerably more than he misses, and the final product comes out never too sharp, yet rarely, if every anything less than rewarding.

With what little time he had left as a freelance cinematographer before Steven Spielberg hucked him in a cage, Janusz Kamiński shot this film maybe a little bit too well, giving it a kind of glow that somewhat overbears, yet is easy to get used to, and thank goodness for that, because you wouldn't want something spoiling your enjoyment of this film's handsome visual style, which goes matched by its technical style, for although the editing gets to occasionally be a bit too snappy, to the point of also being rather overbearing, Joe Hutshing delivers on plenty of slick, snappy editing tricks that really spark a lot of life into this film. Outside of the style, the film goes further livened up by, of course, the soundtrack, for although Cameron Crowe incorporates songs that were, at the time, maybe a bit too contemporary, or in other words, pretty poor (The '90s stank, and a tiny part of my faith was damaged whenever Crowe let Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s Rod Tidwell character kick back and be the only one enjoying the occasional hip-hop "song"), he generally delivers on some fine tunes, or if nothing else, well-directed tunes, as Crowe will tend to bond the music, both good and bad, with the substance of the film, thus supplementing it and adding to the film's style and entertainment value. Of course, providing good tunes and playing with any kind of tune well don't mark the end of the things done very much right by Cameron Crowe as director, for although he makes his share of mistakes along the way, Crowe creates a consistent aura of genuine warming charm, as well as a degree of depth that strengthens upon the film's pick-ups and leaves the touching dramatic weight to strike fairly deep with subtlety and grace, when it could have very easily have collapsed as sentimental. Crowe's direction isn't quite delivering as remarkably with this film as it has with others, though it still gives this film a consistent livliness, broken up by moments of effectiveness, with the only person behind the creation of Crowe's vision who bests Crowe being, well, Crowe himself, as writer, for although the screenplay is a bit too loose for its own good, it goes packed with Crowe's trademark knockout humor and sharp dialogue (As much as the dialogue has since been done to death within pop culture, it better be good), as well as unique story structure points that leave this film to transcend the cliches it could have very easily fallen into. On top of this, Crowe's screenplay also delivers on clever characterization, which fleshes out most every character as memorable, lively and colorful, and goes complimented by the performers behind the flesh-out characters, who go brought to life by most every charismatic component within this fine cast, from which, Cuba Gooding, Jr. stands out, for although I'm still pretty steamed about Gooding recieving the Oscar that so very easily should have gone to Edward Norton for his masterful debut supporting performance in the otherwise underwhelming "Primal Fear" that gave us our first taste of one of the greatest acting talents alive, Gooding really is nothing short of upstanding, portraying the Rod Tidwell character's charisma, big-headedness and more human depths with a lot of charming life, yet still quite a bit of a down-to-earth presence that leaves him to bond with the character and bring him to life with such skill that disappears within the role. As for leading man Tom Cruise, he's not being asked to do too much outside of playing '90s Tom Cruise, complete with a smooth charisma that goes married with a kind of charming vulnerability, yet when Cruise is presented with material, he hits home, conveying the depths, ambitions, anguish and revelations of our titular lead character with subtlety and even a moderate degree of emotional range that really defines the humanity of our lead and makes him all the more compelling. I wish the film had more meat to it, yet when it's all said and done with, it remains a thoroughly enjoyable film, with certain points that are definately better than plenty others, yet still much that it delivers upon with the charm and depth that we've come to expect from the great Cameron Crowe, and while this film is definately far from close to his masterpiece (Well, in all fairness, his masterpiece is one of the great masterpieces of film history, so there's definately a hefty standard there), it's a reasonably worthy classic for him that will ultimately reward those who stick with it, as though sticking with it more often than not proves to be that much of a challenge.

In the end, the film has its fair share of slow spots that momentarily knock you of the film, which never really places all that firm of a bite to begin with, going restrained by limited oomph in the story, made all the worse by the film's being overlong, thus making for a film that doesn't hit especially hard, yet leaves its mark and rarely, if ever descends beneath rewarding, going supported by fine style and a hit-or-miss, yet generally strong and well-handled soundtrack, as well as by Cameron Crowe's inspired direction and strong screenplay, which presents sharp humor and dialogue, as well as depth to compliment its unique story structure and characterization, backed up by a myriad of colorful performances - the most notable of which being by a transformative Cuba Gooding, Jr. and a compelling Tom Cruise - that help in making "Jerry Maguire" a mostly entertaining, sometimes moving and ultimately worthwhile breakout for the great filmmaker that is Cameron Crowe.

3/5 - Good.