JERRY MAGUIRE @ 30.

There must be a heavy burden that comes with being Tom Cruise. the guy that starred in "Endless Love" with Brooke Shields, and played a memorable villain in "Taps" who'd go on to becoming Hollywood's No. 1 Movie Star. It's the that burden however well-documented and considerable - but the burden of being very talented, but being the only thing we've grown to love and hate him for. We don't watch Tom Cruise movies with the same weight we go to see Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn, or Philip Seymour Hoffman movies, with anxious anticipation of probably the most anticipated, award-caliber performance that will sweep awards shows. We watch him with the hope to see him dangling off cars, buildings, running at breakneck speed, fly through the air with motorcycles, and find himself in life-and-death scenarios left and right - which are all fine by the way. I mean, to be fair, "Mission: Impossible" had that killer dangling-on-a-wire in Langley sequence - a staple of its director Brian De Palma adding true suspense to a popcorn film. I'll also give Steven Spielberg props for putting Cruise to good use in "Minority Report" in 2002, so his action movie status remains unchallenged. But Cruise also did "Rain Man", "Born on the Fourth of July" and even his Oscar-nominated performance in "Magnolia", proved he could command a screen without the need to strap himself onto a ballistic missile, helicopter, or dangle from a building.

After the juggernaut that was the 1996 blockbuster, "Mission: Impossible" which led to a few decent franchise entries (Brad Bird's "Ghost Protocol" is the main standout for me), Cruise surprised me and everybody headlining a movie rom-com in "Jerry Maguire", released in December of 1996 which earned accolades and marked his first collaboration with friend, writer/director, Cameron Crowe, responsible for many iconic films such as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (his script adapted by Amy Heckerling) as well as his films, "Say Anything" and "Singles" and won an Oscar in 2001 for his autobiographical film, "Almost Famous", gave Cruise the plum titular role as overly-smiley, toxic positivity sports agent who faces a crisis of conscience when a hockey player's son calls his act out to him.

"Jerry Maguire" was almost like a "Rom-Com for Dummies", and I think that was the idea. No, it didn't mean the film was dumb, nor made for dummies either. It was made for folks like me who weren't into the more delineated "romantic comedy" movie. In fact, it was one of the smartest comedies made in a long time in a decade full of rom-com movies that were at the very least unmemorable to just "meh", some mostly with Meg Ryan who for better or whose, was the Queen of 90s rom-coms after the late Rob Reiner's "When Harry Met Sally...", made her a star in said genre.

The plot in Cliff's Notes: we meet Jerry (Cruise) at a most vulnerable point in his life when he has everything, but not his soul. He pulls an all-nighter to write out a company mission statement that makes a suggestion to lessen the client load and pay more attention to them. This gets him a standing ovation at work - to his face, when within a week, he's sent packing by his company for grounds of... company insurrection? Jay Mohr, for what it's worth, played Maguire's mentee tasked with the dirty deed with equal smarminess and charm we came to expect from him once upon a time.

We then meet Dororthy Boyd (Renée Zellweger in an amazing debut), a colleague who's both enamored of the man and the mission statement. Upon an ugly, but hilarious exit scene, Jerry asks who would have the cojones to follow him and his vision. She's the first to say yes and quit on the spot, probably on spur of the moment as she has a young son of her own and can't really afford to. Avery (the late Kelly Preston in a very bravura turn - RIP), his ex-fiancé, who is neither a cartoon, nor caricature villain has but one demand; to stay employed and get married, accept hard bitter truth from her and the game as its meant to be played. But Jerry doesn't admit defeat, so they part ways.

Dororthy's son (played by a precocious six-year-old Jonathan Lipnicki who himself would go a whole different trajectory as an adult), Ray, is innocently affixed to Jerry, probably because there's a need for a paternal figure or just to devilishly play matchmaker for his mother. Lipnicki plays Ray wonderfully never veering too much into "syrupy cute boy" territory while Bonnie Hunt as Laurel (Dorothy's elder sister), superbly plays her voice-of-reason to almost no avail. She sees that Dorothy is falling for Jerry and desperately doesn't want her heart to be broken again, despite easily stepping into the shoulder-to-cry-on role again.

Rod Tidwell (played by Oscar winner, Cuba Gooding Jr. who despite naysayers, won that award fair and square), his Arizona Cardinals wide receiver and sole client after a fiasco deal with a big-name quarterback played by Jerry O'Connell is overruled by his father (Beau Bridges), becomes his confidante and conscience. Along with Marcy, his pregnant wife (played by a severely underused Regina King), and the promise to "Show me/him/them the money", they all force him to put that mission statement to good use. Put up or shut up essentially.

It's here that writer-director Cameron Crowe does the ultimate about face. We are all in with Jerry Maguire's trials, tribulations, highs, lows in his professional life and the new people who become his support team. Then, the so-called sparks fly between Jerry and Dorothy, and it is to say the least... awkward. Is there love? Most likely, but is there chemistry? Not really, but there is there still a need for both of them? Absolutely. Crowe is dealing with two human beings who have a certain need for each other - but haven't found it or haven't been clued in yet. That's what makes this rom-com perfect for us "dummies". By the time we reach the exhilarating finale that ties it all together, they get it... and finally, so do we.

"Jerry Maguire" did the unthinkable - it made a movie rom-com that's smart, believable and yes, hopeful. I guess that's what movie rom-coms are supposed to do and with the sad tragic passing of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele - who himself was a hopeless romantic and made many of the best movie rom-coms like "The Princess Bride", "The Sure Thing" and "When Harry Met Sally...", understood that love itself was and isn't a linear equation. Cameron Crowe understood this as well and after 30 years later, "Jerry Maguire" still remains a testament to what true love can be, even at its most awkward and messy.

It also gave us the rare Tom Cruise performance that made our hearts race in a different way - not be dangling off cliffs but showing off his tender side.

"Jerry Maguire" will be re-released into theaters April 12, 14, and 15 in select theaters for its 30th Anniversary.