Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a second-tier wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals who also happens to be the sole remaining client of a one-time hotshot sports agent, Jerry McGuire (Tom Cruise).

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"Jerry Maguire" is more than "Show me the money" or "You had me at hello." It's more than Cameron Crowe's crackling writing, Tom Cruise's Cheshire grin, Renée Zellweger's pouting lips and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s diva athlete histrionics.

"Jerry Maguire" is more than a standard date movie, because of all the sports references, and it's more than just a sports movie, because of all the lovey-dovey stuff.

The film is what it is because of what Gooding's Rod Tidwell character would describe as "quan" — that intangible quality that lifts something from the basic to the sublime. Call it love, charisma or chemistry.

But take everything away, including the quan, and I'd still love "Jerry Maguire," because it's an uplifting fairy tale for broken-hearted Arizona Cardinals fans out there. Watching Tidwell take on the hated Dallas Cowboys with a game-saving, injury-defying catch on Monday Night Football late in the film inspires nearly enough joy to salve the wounds of a Kurt Warner fumble.

The movie seems to be equally reviled as it is adored. The phenomenon was there from the very beginning due to the unabashed sentiment — haters would call it naiveté — that courses throughout.

"Jerry Maguire" is best suited to those whose hearts flutter when the music swells at the end of a Frank Capra movie. And it's definitely for those who can't tell whether their heart is fluttering because they're too busy wiping the tears from their eyes.

Written and directed by the modern Capra, Cameron Crowe, "Jerry Maguire" is the story of a man who seems to have everything but realizes he's got nothing. Played by Cruise, Jerry is a wealthy, high-powered sports agent with a sexy fiancee and the instant jealousy of everyone he meets. Jerry has almost enough to disguise the fact that his entire life is a hollow fraud. He searches for passion and finds only greed. He looks for joy and finds only a closet full of flashy suits.

Then, writing as though he were attempting to salvage his soul, Jerry stays up all night channeling his feelings into a mission statement/memo titled "The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business." In a flurry of ambition, he has the memo bound and distributed to his office. For his troubles, he gets a standing ovation, followed by a surprise pink slip and the undying adoration of the one woman who can help him find himself.

Dorothy (Renée Zellweger), the self-described "oldest 26-year-old in the world," is a forlorn accountant. She's also the single mother of Ray (Jonathan Lipnicki), a little ball of thunder who spouts off loud, inappropriate comments and bits of trivia.

Jerry, who takes Dorothy into his new company, falls in love with the kid, as he does with Dorothy. Her man-hating sister senses as much and warns her about falling so hard she hurts herself. She doesn't listen. Nor does Jerry, when his lone client, struggling Cards' receiver Rod, tells him to tread lightly when dating a single mother.

Jerry and Rod follow simultaneous character arcs of driven, egotistical men who discover that money, fame and self-interest aren't everything.

Gooding, so explosive and euphoric as Rod, pranced off with the best-supporting-actor Oscar, and the film also received nominations for picture, lead actor, original screenplay and editing.

One of the reasons "Jerry Maguire" is far better than most other romantic comedies — and it is a romantic comedy, no matter how hard guys who own the DVD try to convince themselves otherwise — is that it follows its core romance past the point of infatuation, straight into complacency. It's a movie about enduring love, not fleeting, solve-everything romance.

"Jerry Maguire" doesn't stop until it shows you the quan.