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ABUNDANCE Revised 022006--Louiso and asterisked

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Jerry Maguire (1996)

is an abundance of riches.

First of all, one of the gems; Todd Louiso as the jazz crazed nannie. He later perfected this type in High Fidelity. He is just great*. The eyeroll, the sweaty palms. If he can get a chance he could be the next Don Knotts; in a post-modern way, of course.

Then we get to Renee Zellweiger as the girl with funny and wise Bonnie Hunt as her sister.

We have Cuba Gooding Jr. as the football pro.

We even have bit parts with a lot of familiar faces including Beau Bridges and Jay Mohr as the snaky competition.

All these people are brought together deliciously by Cameron Crowe who wrote and directed it.

Ebert thinks that it is too much and needs less to tell the story. I think that the richness and the generosity of the whole production is its entire success.

Oh yes. All these folks work around Tom Cruise in the title role. He is typecast successfully as an egocentric, high energy asshole.

When directors can get Tom into his niche and keep him there he shines. And, grudgingly, I have to admit that he does shine here.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

*Louiso also, famously, is the director of Tom Stoppard's The Fifteen Minute Hamlet which was made the year before. He also plays Ophelia!!! It has Philip Seymour Hoffman and Austin Pendleton in it too. I am trying to get it. Probably impossible. They don't put many shorts on tape or disc.