Well, Cameron let me down. If you thought the previews were repetitive, try the movie. If you cut out the repetition of lines, the script would be at least an hour shorter -- and that would be a good thing. It's sort of sad to see a movie try so damn hard to make you care about its characters and yet fail so completely. At the risk of sounding film-criticky, there's no emotional center to the movie. Jerry Maguire is supposed to become a better person during the course of the movie, but frankly, I thought he remained an asshole all the way through, never living up to the principles he supposedly got fired for.
Sure, it's Tom Cruise's best role, but what does that really say? It certainly wasn't the best performance of the year. Cuba Gooding, Jr., on the other hand, gives a sensational performance, and he and his wife, Regina King, provide the only truly affecting moments in the movie. Bonnie Hunt, who's so funny on Letterman, is wasted here. And former SNL-er Jay Mohr plays a sleazy, slimy rival agent, and let me just note that he performed at Bryn Mawr when I was there, and he was really funny, although it may have just seemed that way because the guy who followed him was so incredibly racist and sexist, but after the show he asked a friend of mine, "Which dorm do the easy girls live in?" which has got to be one of the worst things a man could possibly say at Bryn Mawr, although I thought it was sort of funny, and if it had been me, I would have said, "Across the street at Harcum Junior College." Anyway, I have the feeling that the role probably wasn't much of a stretch for him.
And while I'm on my feminazi soapbox, let me rant about how a group of divorced women who meet for therapy is portrayed as threatening to men and how they're all bitter and man-hating. Stereotype much?
Anyway, I can't really recommend this movie. Not even as a rental. It starts out with a brisk pace, but it never goes anywhere... and it takes a LONG time to not go there.
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