'Larry Crowne' Not the Rom-Com it Could Be

Larry Crowne is one of the year's stranger movies—the first picture in years directed by one of Hollywood's most beloved people, yet far below the standard that he usually brings to his work.

It's got some lively moments, but mostly just sits there on screen.

The film is the first Tom Hanks has directed since That Thing You Do! 15 years ago, and the first time he's ever both directed and starred in a film.

Larry Crowne sounds from its plot description like an Up in the Air-style meditation on economic anxiety and unemployment, but instead aims more at being a quirky character study and romantic comedy that doesn't especially succeed at being quirky, funny or romantic.

Hanks stars as the title character, a divorced 50-something former Navy cook who, in the movie's first scene, is fired from his job as a middle manager at a Target-like big box store—with the sole reason for his dismissal lack of a college degree.

Seeking to rectify that, Larry enrolls in community college, likely unaware that you can't get a four-year degree from a two-year school.

Once at school, Hanks takes a speech class taught by Julia Roberts (at her most haughty and unpleasant), and also falls in with a group/gang/cult of community college students who go around everywhere on motor scooters.

This group includes a stunning young woman (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who is able to get Hanks to look, dress and decorate radically differently, while occasionally kissing him full on the lips.

If you're wondering which of the two women he ends up with at the end, then you obviously have a lot to learn about how movies work.

A big problem with Larry Crowne is that it's two movies that don't match each other trying and failing to coexist.

On one level, it's a timely story about the crisis of unemployment and foreclosures, with Hanks looking back on a life of struggle that doesn't appear worth it, as illustrated in his scenes with a neighbor (a surprisingly affecting Cedric the Entertainer).

But there's also its strange and mostly failed attempts at humor and quirkiness, especially involving the scooter gang.

Of course, it also doesn't help that the NBC sitcom Community has almost the same premise, but has managed to infuse it with much more humor and creativity.

And really, just about all of the film's attempts at humor fail.

There's one character (Wilmer Valderama) whose only role in the movie is to get really jealous every time Mbatha-Raw flirts with Hanks, which isn't funny the first, second, third or fourth time. And one ostensible comic relief character (Rami Malek) was so irritating that I wanted to punch him in the face every time he opened his mouth.

The script was cowritten by Hanks and Nia Vardolos, whose name in the credits really explains a lot.

The only consistent laugh in the movie is George Takei, as a tyrannical economics professor who's filmed in low-angle shots from below a podium, not unlike how Leni Reifensthahl shot Hitler in Triumph of the Will.

And borrowing a page from Stringer Bell on The Wire, Hanks is able to cull enough information from one semester of a community college-level economics class to alleviate his real-life financial problems and those of his friends.

Another big problem is the Roberts character. She shows every sign of clinical depression while trapped in a dead-end career and a bad marriage to her unemployed writer husband (Bryan Cranston, sadly wasted by the movie). And unlike in her previous film, Eat Pray Love, this Roberts character doesn't have an entire movie's worth of people at her beck and call at all times to ensure her happiness. Instead, she just sort of undergoes a sudden personality transformation late in the movie.

The Roberts plot is also considerably more judgmental about the issue of Internet porn than I suspect most people seeing the movie will be.

And yes, Cranston is just one of many fine actors wasted by the film. Taraji P. Henson is given just about nothing to do, and while Jon Seda is listed in the credits, I don't remember even seeing him. And ex-Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle, who appears in two scenes, is a shoe-in for the lead if they ever make a biopic of Gov. Chris Christie.

The movie ends better than it started, and I give it credit for not using the out-of-left-field deus ex machina ending that I was dreading.

But I think what bothers me most about Larry Crowne is just how unambitious it is. Hanks has the power to get whatever movie he wants made, and he usually uses that power to make things like engaging, supremely entertaining 10-hour miniseries about the space program and World War II.

He could have put his considerable energies toward making a more definitive movie about the Great Recession, even if it had been a quirky comedy.

And yes, he should've chosen a different collaborator than Nia Vardalos.
---

Also opening this week: On Monday night, I had a chance to attend a screening of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." I decided to stay home, and that same night, I was present when my son took his first steps. It's not too often that one is faced with such a perfect contrast between the very best humanity has to offer, and the very worst.

---

The Silver Screen Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)

---

Roll Credits: Larry Crowne

Directed by: Tom Hanks

Starring: om Hanks, Julia Roberts, Cedric the Entertainer, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, George Takei

Rated: PG 13

Length: 1 hour 39 minutes

---

Appearing at:

Regal Warrington Crossing 22—Click the link for dates and showtimes.