Larry Crowne is just a regular guy working a regular job living a regular life. He entered the Navy right after high school and served as a chef for twenty years. After being employee of the month eight times at UMart (think Walmart), he’s let go because he has no college education. He owes $392,000 on his house and can’t find anyone to hire him. Times are hard. It seems that all the cards are stacked against him but Larry Crowne decides to go to East Valley Community College and his life is changed. While the movie keeps trying to illustrate a tough life…it actually displays the complete opposite showing almost no conflict or effort in the story. By the way, Larry Crowne is written and directed by Tom Hanks himself.
The star power in Larry Crowne is ridiculous. You have Tom Hanks as Larry and Julia Roberts as Mrs. Mercedes Tainot whose distinct laughs duel for the most screen time. Roberts’ forgettable husband Dean is played by Bryan Cranston, Larry’s fast-talking yard sale expert neighbor Lamar is Cedric the Entertainer, and the Economics professor Dr. Matsutani is the great George Takei who commands every frame he’s in. Plenty of other smaller roles are filled by familiar faces as well like Rob Riggle, Taraji P. Henson, Wilmer Valderrama, Pam Grier and the hilarious Malcolm Barrett. However, the star power can’t make up for the lack of…everything else.
Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in Larry Crowne
The movie tries so hard to create some memorable moments and be charismatic but it falls very short. The characters don’t evolve enough because they really don’t have any problems at all. Everything just seems to happen and work out. You don’t get involved in many of the characters lives other than Crowne and Tainot so by the end when the movie tries to include all of them you’re like…wait, who are these people? Where did they come from? The most interesting character is Larry’s scooter friend Catherine who renamed herself Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and renamed Larry to Lance Corona. Tainot calls her an, “irritating free spirit” and she pretty much transforms Larry’s life single-handedly.
Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Lance Corona (Tom Hanks) in Economics class
Julia Roberts character goes through the obvious transformation from a teacher who doesn’t “care” and sits in the back of the class to the teacher who loves all her students and teaches in a non traditional way. It’s so cliche and terribly portrayed in Larry Crowne through the expressions of the Dean who shows up to the class twice. The classroom scenes are cute with some stereotypical student types (the stoner, the geek, the shy latin chick, etc) but again, they don’t offer the character investments you’d expect…it’s very passive. The movie goes through the motions of Larry learning something and then executing it but again, there just isn’t much development happening…the story is very straightforward with nothing to think about.
Scooters are the new...what used to be lame back in the day? Scooters?
Larry Crowne is a feel good movie that doesn’t let you feel bad for one instance. The manufactured ending is so fake that you know you should feel something for the characters but can’t figure out what to feel. There are no trials or tribulations other than the obvious problems laid out for the audience and there are no deeper meanings to discover or realize as you watch the film. It’s a fine movie…you’ll smile, you’ll laugh, you may enjoy it but there’s just no substance to make it worth anything. It’s not a waste of time but it’s pretty close to it…
Tags: Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, George Takei, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Julia Roberts, Larry Crowne, Malcolm Barrett, Pam Grier, Rob Riggle, Taraji P. Henson, Tom Hanks, Wilmer Valderrama
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
