JERRY MAGUIRE (1996) **1/2 A film about the ultimate schmoozing and ass-kissing gig is probably the perfect place to do an "Emperor's New Clothes" about life in the corporate fast lane. Unfortunately Cameron Crowe's script doesn't get far beyond "Well, I don't like his hat, much!" Tom Cruise plays about half of his role to absolute perfection: I can't think of anyone to match him in gleefully wallowing in running around complementing everyone in order to try and get something from them. He is less convincing as a character who sees the error of such ways, and still less as a man whose heart eventually gains dominance over his mind. But, who cares about Tom Cruise?! Cuba Gooding Jr. is absolutely brilliant as the football player who lives by his rhythms and instincts and guts. He sees through the entire facade within which Cruise operates without even having to know much about it. He feels it, he laughs at it, he works it, then he goes home and ignores it. Cuba's life isn't one of unbridled passion and joy, but it is one where those elements are celebrated and unfiltered. Regina King is every bit as convincing in making Cuba's life the complete one that it so clearly is. Back on the honkey side of things, Renée Zellweger joins Cuba as actors who demonstrate Cruise' limitations by contrast-it's almost funny watching Cruise rush from scene to scene trying to see who will out-act him next. Zellweger is either uneven or great at projecting the inertia of boredom, but she takes a few pretty good lines and lays them down so brilliantly that her character is complete. Back to the film's central point, which is allegedly an attack on the superficiality and destructiveness of corporate life... Cruise and Cuba never consider that maybe no one needs more than, say, a million a year or so, and that maybe they could use their leverage to set an example and bring bleacher seats down to the level where kids can afford them again. There is nothing about the new & improved Cruise that is much more authentic-he still runs strings of adjectives and hyperbole together in a way that would shame anyone with any sense of self-respect, but maybe he makes an extra telephone call or something. It's not even clear to me that he achieves anything in his allegedly idealistic mission statement (he looks more stressed than having a good time, he's still dealing with assholes every day of his life). All that he's done is create an individualized model of the corporation, which is certainly better but is also going to leave him with a lot of the same problems (and until he removes himself from that paradigm, not enough room to resolve them completely).
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