Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are back together again, this time they drop the politics and pick up their school books in the latest romantic comedy to hit the big screen, Larry Crowne.
The film is about a middle aged guy named Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks), a Navy cook for 20 years and a nine time employee of the month at U Mart, a big box store that looks just like Wal-Mart. Near the end of the day he is brought into a meeting expecting to win another award and finds out that he is being fired because he doesn’t have a college degree. After the initial devastation, Larry decides to attend East Valley Community College to reinvent himself and enrolls in Professor Mercedes Tainot’s (Julia Roberts) public speaking class, hoping that it will change his life. The thing is, Prof. Tainot has lost the will to teach because it seems no one cares anymore. This lack of passion coupled with her deteriorating marriage leads her to eventually become attracted to the ambitious middle aged student in her class.
On the first day of class, Larry meets a fellow scooter rider named Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who takes him under her wing and introduces him to the scooter riding gang, which is lead by her boyfriend, Dell (Wilmer Valderrama). She changes practically everything about Larry, from the clothes he wears to the furniture arrangement in his house so that it has a bit more feng shui, and even his name. To the group he is no longer Larry Crowne, but Lance Corona. She is a bit overzealous and ridiculously passionate about changing Larry that he doesn’t seem to have a chance to say no. For a guy who is a Navy veteran, even though he was a cook, this through me off.
In addition to starring in the film, Tom Hanks both co-wrote and directed this feature and, for the most part, he did a slightly below average job. The movie, no matter how innocent and likable Larry is, or how emotionally distressed Mercedes is, it is still too quirky and odd for its own good. Most of this quirkiness revolves around the aforementioned Larry makeover. The best way to describe this movie is it’s like the Cake Boss’ cakes, they’re nice to look at but don’t really taste that good. It lacks the real heart that you would expect from a film like this. Granted, I was happy that it never got too mushy and sappy like most romantic comedies, but the story didn’t 
seem to focus on Larry and Mercedes as advertised. Instead, they were two completely separate stories that just kind of met at the end.
As for the acting, I thought everyone did a pretty good job except Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who was just overly friendly and a bit invasive for her own good. It seemed like she had only one emotion, crazy happy. Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks were wonderful in their roles but, despite how much you may like their characters, this was not their best performances (althuogh I wouldn’t expect it to be). Cedric the Entertainer was pretty funny as Larry’s neighbor Lamar who had a garage sale every day, but he wasn’t anything special. The true stand out, and best character of the film, was Larry’s economics professor, Dr. Matsutani, played by George Takei. He taught his class from his own personal course pack and used his deep voice to make sinister laughs while he taught, it was hysterical. If there was one reason to see this film it’s because of Takei.
Overall, Larry Crowne is a likable character but a less likable film. It distinguishes itself from most romantic comedies by having much less romance than you would expect, which actually surprised me (in a good way). Unfortunately, the movie lacks any real depth and emotion to make any sort of real enjoyable impact. It’s safe to say that it is likable but immediately forgettable.
Rating: A likable but shallow and forgettable rom-com that you can barely call average. (5.5/10)
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