Jerry Maguire

But the women get short shrift, and despite her sweet, endearing, slighty ditsy performance, Zellweger's character is woefully underdeveloped. (Bonnie Hunt has some funny zingers as Dorothy's sister, but she doesn't have nearly enough to do.)

Worse, in the end, the film itself takes a low-road approach to its subject. Because the Jerry-Dorothy story isn't as strong as the Jerry-Rod story, the ending feels like the audience is being encouraged to cheer for the wrong reasons. Not because Jerry finally acknowledges his love for and commits himself to Dorothy, but because he has managed to steer a multimillion-dollar deal Rod's way.

For a movie that pretends to be about high ideals, that's a pretty cynical conclusion. (Of course, it's hard to feel sorry for Gooding's character anyway, once it's clear he's complaining about earning several hundred thousand dollars a year instead of millions!)

A good half-hour too long (it clocks in at 135 minutes), "Jerry Maguire" certainly has its moments (and any movie featuring Bonnie Hunt is worth a look). But it suffers from the same problem it criticizes most its characters about. It talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.

Or, in other words, it simply doesn't have heart.

"Jerry Maguire" is rated R for considerable profanity and vulgarity, as well as sex, nudity and violence.