Fairly entertaining sports film that works best when it's focused on Tom Cruise's at-loose-ends agent and his client, played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. But the film crashes and burns when it becomes about the love story between Cruise and Renee Zellweger's character. Writer/director Cameron Crowe has proved time and again that he can't write female characters worth a damn, mostly because he treats them the way adolescent boys treat women when they "discover" them for the first time.
This film goes down smoothly enough, but it's too long and Crowe's writing style is too self-consciously cutesy for my taste ("Show me the money!" "You had me at hello"). This wasn't even close to being one of the best films of 1996, its Best Picture Academy Award nomination notwithstanding.
Grade: B-
This film goes down smoothly enough, but it's too long and Crowe's writing style is too self-consciously cutesy for my taste ("Show me the money!" "You had me at hello"). This wasn't even close to being one of the best films of 1996, its Best Picture Academy Award nomination notwithstanding.
Grade: B-