Hollywood loves “high-concept movies,” films whose plots can be summarized in a single phrase, like “dinosaurs come back to life in an amusement park.” So besotted is the motionpicture industry with the high-concept approach that many movies no longer even need plots at all, only titles — Twister, for example, not to mention the upcoming Volcano and Titanic. The plot of the new Tom Cruise movie Jerry Maguire can be captured in a simple phrase: “Sports agent undergoes personal crisis.” True, that doesn’t sound like much, especially considering that Jerry Maguire lasts well over two hours.

It is. Jerry Maguire is the best American film of the year, maybe of the last few years. Nothing that happens in Jerry Maguire is predictable – – -not a plot development, not a joke, not even a camera angle. It seems like decades since a mainstream American movie devoid of special effects or a fantastical storyline has been able to surprise us, to show us something new. It is even more remarkable that the first one to do so in memory stars Tom Cruise, the biggest box-office draw in motion pictures, giving a revelatory performance.