Review of Larry Crowne (2011) by Blake P — 01 Aug 2013

Remember the '90s? The days where Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts were the King and Queen of Hollywood? "Larry Crowne" tries to recreate the magic they could so easily set in romantic comedies (one can easily remember Roberts in "My Best Friend's Wedding" or Hanks in "You Got Mail"), but it ends up being more sugar sweet than fun.  It never takes risks (to the point where the conflicts deserve sarcastic quote marks around them), and it never manages to squeeze out a chuckle.  It's a bit depressing, considering Roberts and Hanks aren't getting any younger and shouldn't be wasting their time on films like this.

Hanks (big shocker) plays the title character, Larry Crowne. Larry is the archetypal nice guy, a nice guy that is making the most of his job as a department store worker. Unfortunately, even after a handful of Employee of the Month awards, Larry is laid off, as he goes against the store's policy of having their workers have some sort of college education. That in itself is a head scratcher: if this company, which already sounds a bit unrealistic, is so picky, why not just check to see if Larry had college experience before hiring him?

But anyways, we can already see where the film is headed. Larry goes to college. Julia Roberts is his professor, and they fall in love. In the meantime, he meets a bunch of other cool people who become his friends without a question. "Larry Crowne" is perfectly good-natured, but where is the freshness?

Hanks and Vardalos' writing is surprisingly mediocre.  There are several moments where it's obviously that their intention is to create a laugh, but the pun instantly falls flat on its face..  Too many of the characters are too generic for their own good -- even Hanks, an always interesting actor, fails to compel us, partially because we've seen him in better roles, but also because his characterization of "average" is more boring than it should be.  The fact that he wrote the script makes everything a bit more awkward.   Roberts is the one good thing about the film, and it's easy to tell because any time she's in a scene it's actually somewhat engaging.

The film tries to go for quirky, but it ends up being a pleasant enough fixture of a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movie.  The plot itself is numbingly predictable and has a "been there, done that" aura that is hard to wash off.  The first half-hour of a film is important, as it gives the first impression; the one here is so dead-on-arrival that you hardly can believe it stars such two gigantic actors, who have been in so many better comedies.  This film is cute enough, but it plays it a bit too safe.

Imagine how awesome "Larry Crowne" would be if it was made in 1992 and written by Nora Ephron. But alas, it was made in 2011, by a poor old Tom Hanks who should be staying in front of the camera exclusively.