Larry Crowne [Review by Parsi]

Larry Crowne is alright for alright.  At times cute and endearing.  Funny, often sparked by George Takei.  Nothing to rush out and see.

After years working retail Crowne (Tom Hanks) is fired because he lacks an education and is not upwardly mobile.  Of course the explanation is just a ruse for U-Mart to downsize.  He enrolls in community college where he makes some new friends and falls in love with his speech teacher Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts).

I think Haus likes this film less than I do because he thought this was going to be an Indie flick.  I never formed those impressions, so I was never comparing it to Win Win or Company Men.  I thought the story here was entirely divergent from these films.  Crowne’s reaction to being fired may not be as soul crushing as some might like, but I think it is in line with some people’s reaction to adversity.  He does not wallow long in his unhappiness, instead he goes on an unfruitful job search and then enrolls in college.  I guess this was believable to me because I spent time working in retail and the service industry.  I worked in a bowling alley for three years in college.  I had coworkers just like Crowne.  Smart, hard-working, without a formal education, older, happy-go-lucky, and square; these people would put their nose to the grindstone if need be to find new work or make the best out of a bad situation.  Not everyone has to go on an Indie crying jag when facing difficult times.

As to the friendships he formed in his community college classes, the magic of movie dust expedited the development of friendship, but it also was believable.  I made friends in college classes and we hung out right away.  That is sort of what happens in college.  I knew people who met girls in college that transformed them by changing their wardrobe and trying to guide their lives.  His friends are little plastic hipsters, but they poke fun of this as well.  Crowne takes his hipster friends to all of his regular places — the yard sale next door and the greasy spoon — and the hipsters love these places, because there is a spot where older and vintage can meet up.

Crowne and Mercedes relationship does not go down as the best Rom-Com relationships of all time.  But, there is one scene in particular that I thought really captured genuine emotion.  Mercedes has left her big boob obsessed husband’s car after a fight and Crowne picks her up on his scooter.  He takes her home and she gives him a drunken kiss.  In that moment, the two of them become high school kids who kiss their crush for the first time.  They literally burst.  The spark is there.  They combust.  They have so much energy they seem to convulse.  Mercedes practically takes Crowne to the ground.  The scene rang true to me, it felt like a kiss forgotten.  Two people, one divorced and the other on the brink of divorce, finding a spark they did not imagine they could rekindle.

George Takei is awesome.  Enough said.

At the end of the day we have a nice little story.  Sure, not everything is developed as much as would be ideal.  The heartbreak of economic hardship may not be worn on the sleeve.  But, I thought the movie was passably cute.  Highlighted by a few really good moments (including Takei being awesome).

PARSI VERDICT:  Worth a gander if you are into that kind of thing.

See what the other half thinks: Haus’s view.