There is no reason for Larry Crowne to exist other than to serve as fodder for an audience that doesn’t care to look beyond the surface of their films as they laugh at the inane and obvious. An audience that would get the same satisfaction out of the trailer as they would the entire film. That’s fine for them, it’s just not for me.
The obvious place to begin is with the title character, played by Tom Hanks, who also co-wrote and directed this feature. Larry is two years divorced; he bought out his ex-wife’s half of their home mortgage and served as a chef in the Navy for 20 years. Now he’s a dutiful, upbeat, all-star employee at U-Mart where he has been named Employee of the Month eight times. And with a wink and a nod to the way Wal-Mart treats their employees, Larry is thusly fired on the grounds he has no education.
From here, we learn that within a week of losing his job, Larry can’t afford his mortgage because the bank won’t let him refinance. So he strategically defaults on his home, buys a scooter, takes a part-time job as a greasy spoon chef and heads to college to get that education he so dearly needs.
Depending on how fast you read those last two paragraphs, you may have overlooked one important element, a piece of information the film also seems to hope you’ll forget.
Forgotten among the cutesy gags, gentle sobs and one whole week of job searching is Larry’s Navy pension thanks to 20 years of service. We’re talking probably $30,000 a year plus benefits on top of whatever he was making at U-Mart. This detail wouldn’t be so important if the story had never included and then ignored said Naval service. However, his time in the Navy is a point made on more than one occasion, as is how little money he has, and it begins to make me wonder how much he owes on his home. How much does he have in savings? What was the reason for the divorce? Did his wife have a job? Was she contributing to the mortgage? Was he dishonorably discharged?
Beyond all these questions, the worst thing is I don’t want to think about these things. They shouldn’t be important, but if you’re going to introduce an idea, and put as much weight on it as this film does, these details need to be carried out to completion. If you don’t want to bother with the details, never introduce them in the first place. And this is just the start of my problems with this movie.
With Larry’s financial situation never properly addressed, we turn our focus to the fact Larry is heading to college. But this film isn’t too concerned with that aspect of Larry’s life. Sure, he apparently has no money and is trying to start his life over, but Hanks seems to prefer you focus elsewhere. Focus on the fact Larry is a lovable kind of guy. He may be a little slow and dimwitted, but that’s part of his charm. He was wronged by the man! Let’s follow him to college and hope for the best. Off we go!
Pulling up in the vintage scooter he bought from his yard sale-happy neighbor (Cedric the Entertainer) — his Suburban was too much of a gas guzzler — Larry immediately meets Talia (played by the ever-so-cute Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in what is deemed the “scooter pit.” But he has no time to chat now, he’ll join her scooter gang later (seriously), for now he needs to get to Speech 217 and Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts), the teacher he begins crushing on, though there is zero chemistry between the two .
The narrative momentum, if you hadn’t caught it before the film even started, becomes obvious, and not to forget tedious, as we learn Mrs. Tainot has lost her passion for her job and basically hates her stay-at-home blogger husband (Bryan Cranston). Oh man, I just wonder if there’s any chance Larry’s energy and friendly nature can turn her around. Uh, uh, uh… no spoilers here.
The problem with all of this is it’s all so frivolous and unimportant. There are no consequences. What is the goal? Why am I watching? Sure, Larry is a nice guy. I hope he figures his life out, but you’re going to have to give me more than the fact he’s taking three classes at East Valley Community College and ends up falling for one of his teachers for me to actually care.
Hanks has said in interviews Larry Crowne is meant to be an “authentic” romantic comedy. He believes this film to be an example of things that could actually happen. He’s absolutely right when you consider the first ten minutes, but after that the authenticity ends. All we’re left with is a brainless batch of tenth season sitcom plot threads that we’re only watching because this is how we chose to spend our time.
For a rom-com Larry Crowne is freakishly un-romantic and the laughs are mostly reserved for laughing at the absurdity of it all. From the relentless score laid over every scene, no fewer than three Tom Petty songs and a three-second hold on a pizza delivery sign that simply makes no sense, this film is about as amateur as they come. The whole thing has this “What the hell is going on now?” feel to it that I just couldn’t shake.
Hanks is a smart and funny guy, but this film doesn’t prove it. He has said the idea came to him when he heard of the bad things happening to Wal-Mart employees. He thought about what he would do in such a situation. When he decided the solution would be to buy a scooter, go to community college, take three courses, fall in love with Julia Roberts and everything would be alright you have to wonder just how limited his worldview really is.
