That this doesn't degenerate into an experience akin to being hit full in the face by the Tate & Lyle express is a testament both to Crowe's (director of Say Anything and Singles) script and direction plus a new maturity and confidence in Cruise's performance. Things don't run smoothly (natch) for the isolated couple: Maguire is screwed by both ex-colleagues and clients, and although he is attracted enough to his partner and her sprog to smooch, shag and finally wed, the marriage is in trouble within weeks with the outside world's cynicism and Jerry's escalating emotional crisis leaching in and poisoning the familial nest.
With only one desultory client left, Rod Tidwell (played with screwballish energy by Gooding Jnr.), a second rate footballer with a surfeit of energy off the field but precious little on it, Maguire decides to go it alone, failing to persuade any of his colleagues to accompany him apart from lovestruck single parent from accounts Dorothy Boyd (the excellent Zellweger). So, in one long lonely night of the soul, he hammers out a "mission statement" demanding a more human approach, delivers it to his colleagues and is summarily given the order of the boot. He looks around and sees a business plunging towards cynicism a world where a kid can't ask a sports star to do so much as sign a baseball card without endorsement deals and counter-deals hurtling to the fore. He's rich, successful, and has a sex life that would serve as a dictionary definition of "rampant".
Jerry (Cruise) is a sports agent on the brink of breakdown. Director Cameron Crowe has written and directed a deft, funny, shamelessly upbeat romantic comedy and to top it all drawn out the finest performance of Tom Cruise's career. If you don't walk out of Jerry Maguire with a goofy grin the size of Alaska plastered across your face, check your pulse - you're probably dead.