Larry Crowne: The Failure of a Romance Idea

I must admit, there are certain actors on this planet, whose films I would see regardless of a plot and/or level of my tolerance for a disguise. It does not matter if these actors would be eating vomit or have sex with a goat - I just know that not matter what they'd do in a movie, they'd do it it superbly. Among such actors - the actors, whose work I greatly admire - are Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Cate Blanchet, and Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks was one of the reasons I went to see Larry Crowne, and not on an opening night, not even on the next day - due to the fact that I have a pretty good natural intuition for a good vs. bad movie. I felt  from the very first day of its promotion that this movie would not live up to the hype. And it didn't, even despite the fact that it had Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks in it - ones of the most respected, great actors working in Hollywood today. Their acting couldn't even save the poorly-written, cheesy plot.

What could have been a good, solid melodrama, became a rather pathetic, dragging, unfinished film that is featuring two middle aged people, each of whom is unhappy in his/her own way.

Julia Roberts is playing a community college English teacher, who not even once showed enthusiasm for her professional trade, instead - she seemed to despise everybody and everything about her job: students, classroom, hallways, office, and even her professional subject matter...Every class she would drag herself to school just to see if more than 9 students showed up for her subject: if less than 10 students showed up, according to the school administration requirements, the class is dismissed. And after school - all we see is her making a frozen margarita in the amount not for one person, but for an army of men...Later we find out - she is married to a self-employed writer-blogger, who is obsessed with online porn. And she seems to be the one who actually supports both of them. Yes - we feel the pity, on one hand, on the other hand - we don't have a reason for that.

Tom Hanks is playing a U-Mart (or as we all have guessed, a Wal-Mart) employee who has been working for a store chain for years. And what's more disturbing is not the fact that he - visibly intellectual individual - working as a sales person at no less but [Wal-Mart], but the fact that he actually seems to enjoy it tremendously, to the point of over-exaggerated enthusiasm...Thus, it's twice as sad to see him being let-go, just because he's reached the ceiling of being promoted on the level of floor sales and can't be promoted to a managerial position because - wait - he does not have a college education, and according to [Wal-Mart] corporate policy, he can't be "abused" with a sales job forever without promotion, but can't be promoted because a college education is required...Aren't you clapping your hands and jumping up and down from a truly laughable situation?

So, they let him go. Tom Hanks is now without a job. He can't afford his house. He does not have a car. He doesn't even have much cloths. He sells most of the stuff on a garage sale. And...he enrolls at a nearby community college, where he's suggested to take a "life-changing" class in English.

Put 2 and 2 together and you get Tom Hanks - the oldest pupil - and Julia Roberts in one class. Opa...All comes down to a very obvious, almost expected love-hate relationship between Robert's character and Hanks' character. She feels too smart and superior to everyone in the class. He wins her over with his simplicity, kindness and... a joy for life. He also gets better dressed, better hair-styled and younger by a day - all due to his friendship with a 20-something female student, Talia (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who, basically, 'cleans' Hanks up and makes him one cool, modern dude - just as we remember him in such movies as "You've Got Mail" and "The Da Vinci Code".

It's one of those movies that you know exactly what would happen to the main characters in the first few seconds of the movie - they'd hook up, fall in love and will be happy ever after...

The film is unfinished. There is not truth to it. In all of my years as a student at various schools and universities, I've never encountered students and teachers like the ones featured in the film. Neither I've seen sales people like Tom Hanks working at the likes of KMarts, Wal-Marts and Walgreens - if they did, I'd join the store myself....Neither I've seen such close, selfish friendships between 40-something single men and 20-something good-looking girls...I do agree that a film not always should be "true to life", especially a romantic comedy - we all want fantasy - yes, we do. On the other hand - if such loves happen in fantasy-like movies then where it leaves us to believe - we believe in fantasy and the real life sucks because we'll never meet Tom Hanks-likes at a community college and/or Wal-Mart?

Besides, acting-wise - it's not the best work that Julia Roberts could have done. Her acting was mediocre and non-involved. She seemed to be at distance with her character, which is understandable - she's been away from Hollywood, living a simple family life with three kids and a husband.

Julia Roberts with the family

The verdict is: see a movie if you've really missed seeing Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts on a big screen. Otherwise, you would much more enjoy re-runs of the likes of old classics: Big, Sleepless in Seattle and Steel Magnolias...

Oh, yeah, and I forgot to mention - Tom Hanks is actually both THE director of the movie and THE co-writer of the script. What was he thinking?

Watch a movie trailer here: