Larry Crowne, Prague - Czech Republic

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Larry Crowne

Easygoing, lightweight Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts vehicle; a mild but pleasant ride

published 27.10.2011 | comments (0) | log in to post comments

Written by: Jason Pirodsky

Also opening this week:

• The Adventures of Tintin ★★★★

• The Debt ★★½

• Cave of Forgotten Dreams ★★★½

Larry Crowne

Rating

Directed by Tom Hanks. Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, George Takei, Bryan Cranston, Holmes Osborne, Wilmer Valderrama, Maria Canals-Barrera, Pam Grier, Rita Wilson, Rob Riggle, Grace Gummer. Written by Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos.

Showtimes

IMDb

Lightweight and easygoing, friendly and familiar on a sitcom-y level, I can’t imagine anyone actively disliking Larry Crowne, Tom Hanks’ first film as director since 1996’s That Thing You Do. It’s a disarmingly “nice” movie, and a pleasant-enough ride, but I’m not so sure that’s enough; while watching the film, I frequently found myself wondering where it was going, and if it was worth the wait.

Hanks stars as, yup, Larry Crowne, a likable and energetic manager at U-Mart who gets canned in the film’s first five minutes; corporate reasons are less than fully satisfying – something about Crowne reaching his maximum level in the company due to his lack of a college degree (huh?) – but it’s enough to set the plot into motion. Namely, Larry goes back to school to get that degree.

Larry enrolls in the local community college, which consists of two classes: Econ 1, taught by Dr. Matsutani (George Takei), and Speech 217, taught by Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts), who, unfortunately, seems to share a few characteristics with the Cameron Diaz character from Bad Teacher. No points for guessing which teacher Larry falls in love with.

The rest of Larry’s starting-over, picking-up-the-pieces, getting-back-on-your-feet process involves purchasing a scooter to save on gas, getting a part-time job as a short order cook in his friend’s restaurant, and trying to settle a mortgage he can’t hope to pay off. In the process, Larry becomes fast friends with Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who molds Larry’s fashion and initiates him into her scooter “gang”, which includes boyfriend Dell Gordo (Wilmer Valderrama).

With the possible exception of Robert’s Mercedes and her husband, played by Bryan Cranston, the characters are far too thinly sketched. There’s a good supporting cast here, which also includes Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Holmes Osborne, and Pam Grier, but they all have much too little to do.

That includes Hanks’ Larry Crowne, which is a particularly bad sign when you consider that the movie is named after him. He’s a nice guy, sure. We like him. But he’s bland: there’s no inner turmoil, no problem that he must overcome. He has no arc. He’s exactly the same at the beginning as he is at the end, and while it’s nice enough to spend 90 minutes with him, one begins to wonder: what’s the point?

The lack of story arc is epitomized by three speeches Larry must give for his Speech 217 class over the course of a semester: the first is about French Toast, the second interior design, the third George Bernard Shaw (or geography show). Reaction shots from Mercedes and his classmates are supposed to show progression, but from our perspective, they’re all the same damn speech, with little-to-no change. Hanks and co-writer Nia Vardalos knew what they needed to show here, but they lacked the fire to effectively convey it.

Still, Larry Crowne is pretty tough to dislike. Inoffensive and harmless, it won’t seem like much a few days after you see it (that’s if you remember it at all), but I can think of far worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

A generally agreeable soundtrack makes good use of familiar tracks from Tom Petty (Runnin’ Down a Dream, Listen to Her, Walls), Electric Light Orchestra (Hold on Tight, Calling America), and others.

Review Archive

17.5.12: The Dictator ★★★
10.5.12: Dark Shadows ★★★ | StreetDance 2 ★½
3.5.12: The Avengers ★★★½ | Salmon Fishing in the Yemen ★★★
26.4.12: The Raven ★★½
19.4.12: Battleship ★★½ | The Lucky One ★★½ | This Must Be the Place ★★★ | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ★★½ | Hysteria ★★½
12.4.12: We Bought a Zoo ★★★ | The Cold Light of Day ★½ | One for the Money ★
5.4.12: American Reunion ★★★
29.3.12: Wrath of the Titans ★★ | The Vow ★★
22.3.12: The Hunger Games ★★★ | Bel Ami ★★★ | We Need to Talk About Kevin ★★★½
15.3.12: The Lorax ★★½
8.3.12: John Carter ★★★ | Haywire ★★★ | The Grey ★★★
5.3.12: The Chemical Brothers: Don't Think ★★★★
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23.2.12: War Horse ★★★½ | The Woman in Black ★★★ | My Week with Marilyn ★★½ | This Means War ★½
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12.1.12: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ★★★½ | Machine Gun Preacher ★★½
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8.12.11: New Year's Eve ★½ | The Rum Diary ★★★½ | The Thing ★★½
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27.10.11: Adventures of Tintin ★★★★ | The Debt ★★½ | Larry Crowne ★★½ | Cave of Forgotten Dreams ★★★½
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11.8.11: Rise of the Planet of the Apes ★★★ | The Lincoln Lawyer ★★★
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28.7.11: Cars 2 ★★½ | Jane Eyre ★★★½ | Bad Teacher ★½ | The Resident ★★
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26.5.11: Melancholia ★★★★
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28.1.10: Up in the Air | The Fourth Kind | New York, I Love You
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15.10.09: The Brothers Bloom, The Ugly Truth, The Final Destination
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9.7.09: Public Enemies, The Wrestler
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25.6.09: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
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2.10.08: Eagle Eye, Disaster Movie
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28.8.08: You Don't Mess with the Zohan
21.8.08: Funny Games U.S.
14.8.08: WALL•E, Meet Dave, Then She Found Me, The Orphanage
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31.7.08: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
24.7.08: The X-Files: I Want to Believe
17.7.08: The Incredible Hulk, Shine a Light, Be Kind Rewind, Nim's Island, Made of Honor
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26.6.08: Wanted
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31.1.08: Atonement
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17.1.08: Michael Clayton, Lust, Caution, Love in the Time of Cholera
10.1.08: Eastern Promises, I Am Legend
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13.9.07: Ratatouille, The Hoax, No Reservations
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30.8.07: The Bourne Ultimatum, Irina Palm
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