Review: Larry Crowne

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Larry Crowne

I love summer. I especially love the summer movie season. We go to the metroplex to watch films packed with cowboys, robots, aliens, wizards and superheroes. We go to escape from our reality. Finding quality films in this environment can be difficult but every once in awhile you find yourself seated in front of a true gem. For me this gem is a film called Larry Crowne.

Larry Crowne takes its name from its lead character, played by Tom Hanks. It opens with our protagonist being fired from his job at a Wal-Mart-like retailer. The reason: Larry lacks a college degree. Upon being fired, Larry re-evaluates his life and decides to explore returning to college via his local community college. While visiting the college, Larry is advised to him to take a couple of classes: speech and economics. The classes are taught by Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts) and Dr. Matsutani (George Takei). Each of these actors brings their respective characters to life in unique and amusing ways.

Along the way Larry is taken under the wing of a young college student named Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). In the role of Larry's muse, Talia helps transition Larry into his new life as a first-year college student. She introduces him to her friends, including her boyfriend and leader of a "scooter-gang" Dell Gordo (Wilmer Valderrama). Talia never treats Larry like a 50+-year-old college student, but accepts him for who he is. Overall the relationship between the two of these characters is authentic and they both succeed in teaching each other things about life.

I am going to be honest here. I was not convinced this movie was going to be good at all when I decided to take the opportunity to screen it for review. One of the primary reasons for me taking this assignment was so I could take my wife, whom I knew would love any film starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Where these are positives in her eyes they don't really mean a lot to me (can you say The Tourist).

Let me say this right now. I was wrong. I was way wrong. Larry Crowne worked on so many levels and I find it being one of my favorite movies of 2011. Let me tell you why this movie works: Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks has his hands in every aspect of this film. He produced, acted and directed. If this wasn't enough, he also scripted Larry Crowne with Nia Vardalos. The story they wrote was convincing and didn't rely on typical gimmicks I find frequently in films like this.

Larry Crowne defies the genre. I was half expecting a typical rom-com and didn't get that. This is a film that cannot be described as a rom-com at all. It is actually a movie about transformation, and that is where it succeeds. I cannot recommend this film enough. You will not be disappointed.