Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks, who also directs), the man not the movie, is the kind of guy proud to wear his My Name Is tag. That is, until the day U Mart downsizes him because he doesn’t have a college education. Divorced and stuck with a house that isn’t worth what he owes on it, he turns his life around by going back to school and getting an education in life and love from teacher Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts).
Star Ratings:
Richard: ***1/2 stars
Phil: *1/2 stars
Richard: Phil, Larry Crowne has an old fashioned feel to it, like a Nineties sitcom updated with references from the 2000s. There’s something reassuring about seeing old pros Hanks and Roberts effortlessly glide through this like hot knives through butter, but occasionally the material feels a bit out of date.
Phil: The movie seemed too old fashioned to me and just felt bland. Star power has appeal, but I just can’t buy two of the most recognizable movie stars as down-on-their-luck nobodies. Tom Hanks may have an everyman quality, but he looks as out of place working in a department store as Larry the Cable Guy at Harvard.
RC: Maybe so, but Hanks has been playing the Da Vinci Code’s oh-so-serious iconology professor Robert Langdon for so long now it’s easy to forget that he was once known as an accomplished comedic actor. Here he turns the dial back to movies like Joe Versus the Volcano, playing a likeable character you want to root for. I enjoyed that, I just found the obvious boomer baiting a bit obvious.
PB: Yeah, it was nice to see him try to be funny again and hopefully it’s not the last time. Few do gentle character comedy better. The boomer baiting was frustrating, as was the attempt to make overcoming economic crisis seem so easy. If only I’d known before now that the answer to any financial problems I have could be solved by taking a community college level intro to economics course with George Takei. It seems so obvious in hindsight.
RC: I actually really liked the movie’s offbeat casting. Sure, Hanks and Roberts are the above-the-title stars, but they’ll only appeal to people who remember when gas only cost 54 cents a litre. The rest of the cast is bizarre. Pam Grier? Awesome. Wilmer Valderrama? Well, maybe not awesome, but at least left of centre enough to be fun. For all the familiar names in the cast it was an unfamiliar one that grabbed my attention: Gugu Mbatha-Raw. I think a new star might have been born there.
PB: She has a star quality and I did enjoy seeing Tekei, even if his subplot was ridiculous. This is a comfort food movie. For the price of admission you get pretty actors, a comfy moral, and a happy ending. There’s nothing wrong with cinematic empty calories, I just could have used some realism, edge, and creativity.
