LARRY CROWNE
Directed by: Tom Hanks
Written by: Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos
Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wilmer Valderrama, George Takei, Cedric the Entertainer, Pam Grier
In a summer packed with superheroes from the Big Two publishers, Marvel Comics and DC Comics (e.g. THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, GREEN LANTERN, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER), one superhero has stealthily avoided intense media attention, LARRY CROWNE, Tom Hanks’ (THAT THING THAT YOU DO!) second and possibly last film as director. The title character, played, of course, by Hanks, doesn’t wear tights, a cape, or even hide his identity behind a domino mask. He can’t fly or even leap a tall building with a double bound; he can’t lift a single SUV with one, let alone two hands (or arms); he can’t recover from life-threatening injuries in seconds; he can’t shoot death rays from his eyes, with or without the benefit of prescription eyewear; he can’t teleport vast distances in a single wish or otherwise announce to the world that he is, in fact, a super-powered superhero worthy of unqualified worship by the masses or, at minimum, the women who fall, by magic, supernatural, or other, extra-human means, into his coming-of-middle-age story.
What Larry Crowne (Hanks), a seemingly non-descript, out-of-work, fifty-something shlub can do, however, is face any problem, no matter how life-changing, up to and including the loss of his livelihood and the prospective loss of his house, with preternatural calm and aplomb. It doesn’t hurt (actually, it helps), that Larry Crowne, a.k.a. Indomitable Man, can also use the “law(s) of attraction” to obtain the interest, romantic and otherwise, from two incredibly attractive women, one age inappropriate, Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a free spirit and thus a free spirit, the other, more age appropriate (she’s half his age), Mercedes Tainot (a bland, disinterested Julia Roberts), a cynical, semi-despairing community college professor, stuck in a dead-end marriage to Dean (Bryan Cranston), a two-time author, semi-regular blogger, and internet porn aficionado.
Before Crowne meets the women of his not-quite wet dreams, he’s unceremoniously booted from his job at U-Mart (an obvious Wal-Mart stand-in), a big-box retailer, ostensibly because he lacks a college education. His constant good cheer and excellent salesmanship are insufficient for his employers to keep him on in a recessionary economy. This Larry Crowne, however, doesn’t let a minor problem like losing his job get him too far down. Indomitable to the core (it’s one of his super-powers), Larry keeps his chin up, sucks in his gut, and, taking the advice of his African-American neighbor (because everyone has one), Lamar (Cedric the Entertainer), decides to get that college degree he passed up for a twenty-year stint in the U.S. Navy, this despite rapidly dwindling financial resources.
Crowne signs up for several classes, including an Economics 101 course taught by the supremely egotistical, authoritarian Dr. Matsutani (George Takei) and a public speaking class taught by Mercedes Tainot. The former gives Hanks the co-writer (with Nia “MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING” Vardalos) the opportunity to indulge in modest character-based humor, the latter, more importantly, as the vehicle for Crowne’s self-awakening and obligatory romantic interest. Mercedes’ husband, like every obstacle Crowne faces over the film’s 99-minute running time, is a minor, easily overcome impediment. Hanks fills the public speaking class with the usual assortment of non-entities, the better to shine the spotlight on the easy-to-admire, easy-to-love Crowne.
Setting his superpower mojo on high, Crowne gets a life-coach/eye candy extraordinaire in Talia who, for no apparent reason except (a) it’s Crowne’s other superpower or (b) Hanks the screenwriter deemed it so, decides to make Crowne her reclamation project, getting him a new haircut (marginally different from his earlier hairstyle) and gets him to upgrade his clothes from tucked in, squarish polos and slacks to loose-fitting, untucked dark clothes. Talia’s scooter-riding, black-leather-jacket-wearing, faux-tough-guy boyfriend, Dell Gordo (Wilmer Valderrama), doesn’t approve of Talia’s (presumably) platonic interest in the old-enough-to-be-her-father Crowne, but he isn’t taking any chances, glowering in Crowne’s general direction at every opportunity.
With Hanks the co-writer and director giving Hanks the actor, or rather Hanks’ character, a major assist, Crowne’s character arc, from mildly upset single, unemployed man to mildly happy college student with a girlfriend several leagues above his lowly social stature, is guaranteed. Effort isn’t rewarded because it’s not necessary. Cynicism and despair, however, have no place in Hanks’ positivity-yes, negativity-no worldview. Whether Crowne has a stealth superpower or, more likely, Hanks wanted to make a positive uplift film about the Great Recession (message: “Just believe in yourself and everything will get better; plus, you’ll get a hot romantic partner too.”), the result is the same: an unengaging, unenergetic fantasy that leaves Hanks sadly looking like the fading, out-of-touch, affluent movie star that he is.
2 out of 5
