Film Reviews

Larry Crowne

• Rating:
• Director: Tom Hanks
• Starring: Starring; Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Wilmer Valderrama, Nia Vardalos
• Details: US/97mins 12A

A sweet but aimless film that would not exist - at least in this star-ridden guise - were it not for the star power of Tom Hanks, Larry Crowne is fairly mundane stuff. Playing like a particularly unfunny episode of Community, it comes together slightly before the end, but has already meandered all over the place too much by then for anyone still watching to care. Hanks is likeable enough, but his direction is limp and the story uninteresting. Hanks is titular character Larry Crowne, a normal sort who gets fired from his relatively menial job in Umart for not having a college education. So, he decides to go back to college in order to find work, where he meets Julia Roberts' cynical teacher and makes new friends for the first time in years. That might seem like a short synopsis, but that's really all there is, plot-wise. But that's no biggie; indie flicks and flicks with indie sensibilities do that all the time. This is character-driven stuff, so surely there are some interesting characters, right? Not really. Even Crowne himself leads a wholly uninteresting existence and, as you may have guessed from the title, he's the focal point of the entire film. It feels like it's attempting to say something about the current economic climate and ageism in the work place, but there's no real struggle for Larry. He goes to college fairly sharpish after realising a job isn't likely with his current education, and hits it off with every single person he meets. Even his hot, lusted-after teacher falls for him willy nilly, but only after a free spirit from his economics class gets him some vintage threads. Hanks is likeable, and there was potential for Roberts' character if her relationship with (an underused) Bryan Cranston had been a bit more fleshed out. On the other hand, gags involving George Takei and Wilmer Valderrama don't even raise a chuckle. Safe enough to pass a rainy day, but Larry Crowne is ultimately boring.

Review by Mike Sheridan