Review: ‘Larry Crowne’ shines out for Tom Hanks!

Spicezee Bureau

When you have two Oscar winners in a film, who are considered as stalwarts in the entertainment industry, you already have a winner at hand. ‘Larry Crowne’ featuring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts is a heart tugging tale of love, life and all the good things that come along with them. The film tries to capture the present scenario in America. The film has downsizing, job recession, unemployment as the backdrop. The story is about Larry Crowne (Hanks), a Navy veteran, who is downsized by the top brass due to a lack of college education. Larry decides to attend the local community college. He enrols in economics — taught by Dr. Matsutani (George Takei) — and a speech class taught by Mercedes Tainot (Roberts), whose become disillusioned with her profession due to lack of interest shown by her students. At school, Larry makes friends with Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), her boyfriend, Dell (Wilmer Valderrama), and several other scooter-riding enthusiasts. With new friends he discovers a life that he has missed all these years due to rigid defence training. Larry befriends Tainot as well and makes her look at life from a different angle compelling her to make efforts to make changes in own life. Be it teaching or trying to reconnect with her husband Dean. Hanks, who is also the director of the film, once again proves it that he is an actor par excellence and has it to make the film work. He teams up with Roberts for the first time and the pairing is fresh. Hanks co-wrote the script with Nia Vardalos (‘My Big, Fat Greek Wedding) and there are some lovely elements and sequences. However, there are elements of the story that don’t quite work. The film keeps the current economic condition as the backdrop and aims at submerging the current scenario with the story but is unable to do so. In spite of minor gaps in the storyline, ‘Larry Crowne’ is still an entertaining film, mainly because of it lead pair. Hanks and Roberts are amazing actors and have a very likeable screen persona that shines through this film. Watch it for the magic of Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. It’s worth all your money! Ratings: Three cheers for this one!