How misguided is this movie? Its makers are so rich and out of touch with reality that when they heard about the 2008 economic collapse, they said to themselves hey, this would make a dynamite comedy!
Tom Hanks has worked with some of the most gifted filmmakers alive. So he should know better than to coauthor a screenplay with the infinitesimally talented Nia Vardalos. He and his wife produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding back in 2002 and made millions on the improbable hit. Since then Vardalos has turned out one flop after another so it’s easy to understand why she would welcome the collaboration. The megastar’s involvement in this pointless, tasteless project is far more difficult to fathom.
But here he is, directing, producing, cowriting and starring in the lamest film of his career. He plays the title character, a 50-something employee of a Walmart-style big-box store cheekily called U-Mart. In the opening scene he’s told the company has no choice but to let him go. He’s also told this is due to the fact that he lacks a college degree and so will never be eligible for promotion, which rings false for at least two reasons:
First, he’s worked there for years–and been named employee of the month no fewer than eight times–without having a degree. And second, one of the college-educated managers who fires him is himself let go later in the film.
At any rate, Larry Crowne becomes an American statistic. He’s unemployed. His mortgage is underwater. He’s a divorced father of at least two. We never learn how many children he has because he not only never interacts with them in the course of the movie, he only even mentions them in passing once, referring to them in the plural. We’re supposed to find Larry a nice guy but what kind of a nice guy never calls his kids and scarcely seems to notice their absence? The story behind his divorce is likewise never touched upon.
This is because the picture has just one setting: Cute. It has no room for anything that’s not cute. Larry enrolls in a community college and his classes are filled with cute young characters who improbably take him under their wings. He trades his SUV for a scooter. That’s cute. He enrolls in a speech class. His teacher is played by Julia Roberts. They meet cute and their relationship increases in cuteness until the closing credits. The writers even find a way to turn Larry losing his home into a thing of cuteness.
Who knew it’s so much fun to be downsized? Even by rom com vanity project standards, Larry Crowne is a clueless, condescending blight. The economic crisis is no laughing matter. Vardalos and Hanks don’t appear to understand that and their film certainly doesn’t change that.
They pretend to empathize with the common man but can’t even be bothered to breathe halfway believable life into their Average Joe and Jane, much less their never-for-a-minute convincing love connection. Forget speech. What Hanks and Roberts should have boned up on was chemistry.
I liked this one because it had its heart in the right place, and the chemistry between Hanks and Roberts kept me enjoyed. However, I won’t lie when I say that this is heavily flawed, but not unwatchable by any means. Good Review! Check out mine when you can!