Rating:  

Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Cedric The Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, George Takei, Bryan Cranston, Maria Canals-Barrera, Wilmer Valderrama, Rami Malek, Ian Gomez, Malcolm Barrett, Pam Grier, Rita Wilson, Rob Riggle, Dale Dye.
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Director: Tom Hanks
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 99 Mins.
Release Date: July 1, 2011
Home Video Release Date: November 15, 2011
Box Office: $35.6 Million
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Vendome Pictures, Playtone, and Universal Pictures.

Written by: Tom Hanks and Nia Vardalos.

Two of the biggest superstars on the planet, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, join together for the romantic comedy, “Larry Crowne”, and offer a break from the more conventional bang-bang, shoot-em-up entertainment audiences have grown accustomed to seeing in the typical Summer Movie Season. Hanks is front and center with this project, serving as the film’s star, co-producer, co-writer (with Nia Vardalos), and director.

As the front-end manager at a corporate retail giant known as U-Mart, Larry Crowne (Hanks) has a simple and efficient life. A couple of years removed from divorce, Larry is quite popular with his staff and knows every nook and cranny of U-Mart’s cavernous retail store. He is anything but ordinary in this environment and loves coming to work each and every day. Unfortunately, U-Mart has a new ownership team running things and there is now a new mandate in place that all managers, both existing and those in training, must be college educated. Despite serving 20 years in the Navy as a chef, and several more years working up the ladder with U-Mart, he is unceremoniously fired having never attended a moment of college in his 50+ year life. The reasons given are obtuse and maddeningly generic, leaving Larry with no understanding as to what he has done to deserve this treatment.

Faced with no viable options after interview upon interview ends in failure, Larry heeds the advice of his married neighbors, Larry and B’Ella (Cedric The Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson), and signs up for community college. His goal is to take a couple of courses that will help him land new and fruitful job opportunities; among them, Speech 217, taught by Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts) and Economics I, taught by Dr. Matsutani (George Takei).

Ms. Tainot (“that’s Tay-No and not Tie-Knot”, she implores) is a 40-something college professor who has run out of good things to champion in her life. Her marriage is failing fast as her blogger husband, Dean (Bryan Cranston), sits at home and looks at Internet porn all day, denies it, and then blames her for not supporting his “blogging” career. Nicknamed “Mercy”, she optimistically hopes that too few students enroll in her courses so she does not have to teach them. She is miserable and brings that misery with her everywhere – home, school, even to her friendship with fellow instructor, Frances (Pam Grier). On the first day, Mercy is in the midst of informing everyone that with only 9 students attending her Speech 217 course, the class is cancelled. Until, Larry blasts in and forces Mercy to go forward with the 8:00 a.m. class.

Watching “Larry Crowne”, it is very easy to be romanticized into the cadence and pacing of the film. There is deliberateness about Hanks’ work that coincides with the laid-back, nicety underpinnings of its titular character’s take on the world. It has been said by others that Hanks’ Larry Crowne may be the nicest man on the planet. Perhaps, but he also has been called a grown up and slightly more intelligent Forrest Gump for the 21^st century – a contention Hanks would likely take some umbrage with.

To his credit, Hanks has studied and created Larry Crowne from the inside out and has deep affections for this everyday guy, faced with uncertainty regarding his future, and having to re-educate in community college at an advancing age. As good as Hanks’ performance is however, the film fails to measure up and feels too safe and convenient in key moments.

If I could sum up “Larry Crowne” in one word…it would be convenient. Events happen too conveniently for “Larry Crowne” the film, and Larry Crowne the man, to be taken very seriously. Hanks does evoke palpable fear and emotion in losing his job at U-Mart. For the rest film, details of his life are skirted over almost as if they are meaningless. Larry is divorced from a woman named Darlene and the only details we get are that Larry’s buying out of her interest in the house was likely a financial misjudgment on Larry’s part. He seems to get over his job loss quickly and we soon get the sense that not only is Larry Crowne indeed the nicest guy ever, but he is Teflon. Nothing sticks to him – good things, bad things, or otherwise, everything just rolls off his back.

An entire subplot of the film centers on the gorgeous Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who takes a peculiar and unexplained interest in Larry. Initially, the connection is centered around the fact that they both commute to school on motor scooters and rather conveniently, Larry becomes a member of Talia’s gang of motor scooter riders. Watching the Talia/Larry Crowne relationship is maddening because she seems almost created to simply fill time. Crowne is rather aloof to how beautiful Talia is and she seems to have some base level of interest in him; a fact that is obvious to every single other person in this film not named Larry Crowne. Is Talia just playing around cloyingly to make her boyfriend (Wilmer Valderrama) jealous? Does she actually have a crush on the simpleton who is 30+ years her senior? What is Talia’s purpose and motivation in being rather obsessed with this man and freshening up his look and stoking his attitude in every encounter they share together? Do people even exist like this?

Maybe this is why his wife left – Larry Crowne has no idea what is happening around him. In this regard, he could be characterized as frustratingly dense and clueless. He exhibits characteristics that fit occasionally with his personality and at other times, stand in total contrast with someone who could be a successful retail manager and ladies magnet for a studied and seemingly well-read college instructor.

And a hot, young scooter babe…who is not interested in Larry but is kind of interested, just not in that way. Oh nevermind.

Julia Roberts handles her role with a nice balance of cynicism and curiosity, but seems to fall into a bond with Larry, like everything that happens in and around him, from sheer convenience. Larry sticks out to her initially as that tenth student that forces her to teach that early morning Speech class. Then, as her marriage disintegrates rather abruptly and (ahem) conveniently on a drive home, Larry is there on his motor-scooter offering a ride. She objects, then agrees, then he walks her to her door and sparks fly.

Watching “Larry Crowne” I admit that I did rather enjoy the film as it played and I laughed out loud a fair amount. George Takei simply kills in his role as the hard-to-read Econ professor and some of the students in Speech 217 are excellent with what little Hanks and Vardalos give them to do.

“Larry Crowne” is hobbled by a safe nature and uncomplicated harmlessness as it exists in an untenable reality. Films and characters from movies such as “Up In The Air” and/or “The Company Men” would be aghast at the simplistic and matter-of-fact tone of what is brought forth on screen with Larry’s decisions regarding his employment, his school, his willingness to take a foreclosure and earn minimum wage. But Larry Crowne has a heart as big as the Grand Canyon and I suppose the fact that he is kind to a former co-worker when he could cut him down viciously, and he picks himself up by his bootstraps when times are hard for him, will resonate just fine with a lot of viewers.

All I know is that when I look around, I don’t seem to find much of anything convenient for most people nowadays or their problems so conveniently resolved. So I certainly beg your pardon in pointing out that the good and sweet-natured “Larry Crowne” character and film conveniently ignores the inconvenient truths we all deal with in the real world each and every day.

Should I See It?

Those who like Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts will be happy to see them back together on screen, whether they are in a mediocre film or not.

The film does provide laughs and it is easy to be sucked in by the kindness and naivete of the project. There are a lot worse films out there and this will appeal to a lot of people looking for something light and easy.

Despite its obvious shortcomings, the film is a nice alternative to the loud and equally mediocre summer offerings of 2011 so far. So if you’re gonna see something mediocre, this will be the most entertaining option for adults and couples.

I had high hopes for this to be good, and it is easily watchable and entertaining enough. If you stop and consider what you are watching, the cracks start to emerge and the film looks rather flimsy and too simple and too lightweight to be taken seriously.

I will refrain from repeating my problems with the entire Talia storyline, but yeah, what was that?

Hanks is not at his best here on a technical level either, with some strange shot choices and lots of Tom Petty music. As much as you will watch and be entertained, the film just seems to be lost in a completely different world.