Larry Crowne (2011)

Sorry, this movie sucks

ridiculous rating

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is a mediocre, but not unpleasant or irritating movie. The performances are all right, but I have seen these two before doing the same things -- Julia flashing those teeth, Tom furrowing his brow -- and in one case even together (Charlie Wilson's War). I checked the spoilers box because the penalty is so draconian for a disagreement about what is and what is not a spoiler. In fact, no spoiler is possible for this picture whose outcome can be guessed when its cast credits are read. The reason I am concerned about spoiler alerts is that my comment here about this otherwise unremarkable movie involves its ending or the first of its two ending. I say "two endings" because this movie has at its end one of the worst editing failures I have ever seen. Three minutes or so before the actual ending, three minutes of a scene that has "deleted scene" written all over it -- even the actors seem not to know what to do with it -- is a scene where the protagonists, although still able to see each other, are at some distance from each other displaying facial expressions and glances that establish their future. This is where this movie truly ends both because it is a perfect closing scene in and of itself and it is an homage to one of the finest, most delicate, both subtle and obvious final scenes any movie ever had, a movie that was most deservedly the best picture of 1946. Not only is the scene here substantively the same as the one there, but even in each case is a certain restraint appropriate because one of the two enthralled is still married. Both are endings about beginnings and futures.I don't understand how director Hanks who must know the 1946 movie failed to see that his 2011 movie ended exactly as the 1946 movie had, when the characters saw the future.

Please know that I am a fan of Tom Hanks. Movies like "Forrest Gump" or "The Green Mile" come to mind. He can pull off any genre. Movies benefit, besides from his acting skills, from his likability and charisma. So much so, that even "light comedies" seem more sophisticated somehow. Unfortunately, not this time! Larry Crowne is painful to watch, cringe-worthy and for some: aggravating.***SPOILERS AHEAD***Middle-aged Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) is fired from his job and decides to go back to college. Younger students figure, that he is lame and decide to give him a makeover: His look, his flat, etc. He does not object and happily accepts their judgment and their self proclaimed superficial role as human-fixers. So after changing his hair-cut, rearranging his flat and picking new clothes for him to wear, it comes as no surprise when a younger female student decides to grab, snap and throw his glasses. Larry Crowne's reaction: "Thank you". New glasses make him look more hip. Transformation almost complete...At the same time we, the viewer, get to know Mercedes (Julia Roberts), who is working as a college teacher. She is bitter, hates her husband (who likes big boobs) and gave up on teaching a long time ago. She is judgemental and uses limited information, she can gather by looking around, to label her students unworthy of her teachings.By now, you will probably have figured out the whole movie. Students fix Larry, Larry fixes Mercedes, Larry and Mercedes and up falling in love.I disliked this movie so much, I had to write a review. In order to balance my bad experience I will have to re-watch a classic and write a senseless good review for the universe to absorb. Thank you.

There really is no chemistry, and the storyline is quite thin. I liked all the characters but none of them have any real substance to them. The fact that it was written by Tom Hanks, surprises me, as I thought he would have done a better job with the story. It's somewhat inconceivable, that a guy with (spoiler alert) 20 years in the Navy wouldn't have a pension coming, so his need to go back to school/work is kinda lame. Things in this movie just seem to be so stiff and out of place.. the redoing of his house, the moped gang, the quick dismissal of the husband... there's so much wrong with the movie.. forget it and move on..

After the success of 'That Thing You Do' you can see why Tom Hanks was keen to give the acting/writing/directing in a project another go.Sadly Larry Crowne is not a good film. The premise is good, and certainly topical but it's let down by a paper thin plot and weak characterisation.Tom Hanks to his credit does his normal everyman trick very well and his relationship with Julia Roberts character is strong,but everything else...oh dear. Even the appearance of Cedric The Entertainer doesn't add much to a film that plods along despite it's relatively short running time.The sad thing is that this film had potential, but sadly the female characters are so 2D that we never really feel for them. And in a romcom if we don't root for both parties the game is really up.