Smiles, Tears -- `Jerry Maguire' And Tom Cruise Deliver

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XXX 1/2 "Jerry Maguire," with Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Lipnicki. Directed and written by Cameron Crowe. Alderwood, Bella Bottega 7, Crossroads, Everett Mall Cinema 4-10, Factoria, Gateway, Issaquah 9, Kent 6, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Mountlake 9, Northgate, Puyallup 6, Renton Village, Totem Lake. "R" - Restricted because of language and sexuality.

Tom Petty's "Free Falling" turns up on the soundtrack at a thrillingly appropriate moment in Cameron Crowe's third and best movie as a writer-director.

Like Crowe's dramatic use of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" in his first film, "Say Anything . . ." (1989), and his canny decision to turn Paul Westerberg's "Dyslexic Heart" into the exit music for "Singles" (1992), it demonstrates the filmmaker's instinct for music as something more than instant nostalgia.

"Free Falling" also describes the state of mind of the title character, a self-hating sports agent, perfectly played by Tom Cruise, who is going through an early midlife crisis. He's decided that he's become "just another shark in a suit" and grows a conscience overnight, writing and distributing a mission statement stating his belief that there's no reason his business has to be intrinsically dishonest.

"Fewer clients, less money" is his kinder, gentler new mantra.

Three decades ago, this character would have tuned in, turned on and dropped out. Here he decides to stick around and play the game by his rules, and he runs right into failure. He's fired from his agency, Sports Management International, and abandoned by his fair-weather clients and competitive fiancee (Kelly Preston), who beats him up when she fears that he's going to dump her first.

Much of the movie is about Jerry's denial of defeat, his resistance to being called a loser for making this turnaround and his insistence that he not emerge as "a cautionary tale, cloaked in failure." Uncertain about his new beliefs, he wonders if he'd just stayed up too late and made a lot of rash statements, but in the process he's inspired a couple of people.

One of them turns out to be his only client, a minor football player named Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who responds to Jerry's honesty and becomes his best friend. The other is an office accountant, Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), a single mother who risks losing health benefits and a salary to help him set up his new agency.

Gooding does his finest work since "Boyz N the Hood," positively glowing with this character's mixture of engaging brassiness and (occasionally misdirected) energy. Zellweger, who was cast in this film on the basis of her lovely performance in "The Whole Wide World" (a film-festival favorite that opens here next week), demonstrates her versatility and confidence by giving Dorothy a winningly independent spirit.

The movie is populated by half a dozen other characters who register strongly: Rod's feisty wife (Regina King), Dorothy's wisecracking sister (Bonnie Hunt), a couple of smiling traitors (Jay Mohr, Beau Bridges), a jazz-loving babysitter (Todd Louiso) and Dorothy's irrepressible young son (6-year-old Jonathan Lipnicki), who instinctively senses Jerry's sincerity.

But the engine that drives "Jerry Maguire" is Cruise, giving the kind of performance that all but deconstructs his recent series of glib leading-man roles. Cruise can seem mechanical, as he did in "Mission: Impossible," but when he's playing a character who's humiliated and abused, as he does in "Born on the Fourth of July" and this picture, his natural resilience can be quite affecting.

As a laughter-and-tears entertainment, "Jerry Maguire" works more efficiently than any other Hollywood film this year. This suggests the influence of its chief producer, James L. Brooks, whose "Terms of Endearment" is still the slickest example of how to pull it off. There's a sitcom smoothness to some of the funniest bits here, and at times it's a little distracting.

But in scene after scene Crowe's exuberance and invention come through. Whether he's mischievously surrounding Jerry's star athlete with a halo ("I'm a sun devil!," Rod declares), turning a wedding videotape into the basis for dark thoughts about newlyweds' compatibility, or using a group of whining divorcees as the backdrop for the movie's most touching scene, Crowe suggests the qualities of a major filmmaker.

(Note: Earlier this week, the National Board of Review named Tom Cruise best actor for his performance in "Jerry Maguire," while Renee Zellweger was named "breakthrough newcomer" for her work in both "The Whole Wide World" and "Jerry Maguire.")