Larry Crowne (2011) Movie Review, Trailer and Poster

USA 2011
Director: Tom Hanks
Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: 1 July 2011; 21 July 2011 (Indo)
Running Time: 1 hour 38 minutes

The Movie Review

The reason why I watched Larry Crowne was pretty much the same with Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2011)... Time killer. On Thursday, 28 July, I already conveniently got my Harry Potter tickets when queuing for Dylan Dog, I was pretty much set up to go home but I got info from Twitter of the unusually traffic jam that night, probably due to football match between Indonesia and Turkmenistan at Senayan, South Jakarta. We won by the way :-) Shoot, just went back to the tickets table and bought a ticket for Larry Crowne, besides I didn't have much of a choice. I've seen Something Borrowed, The Beaver, Shelter and Catatan Harian si Boy, leaving me only the heavy drama film Surat Kecil untuk Tuhan, the last one was too heavy for that lazy evening. And for a time killer, it's pretty nice though unbelievably generic.


LARRY CROWNE
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Tom Hanks stars as the titular character Larry Crowne in this 2nd movie which he directed himself. Larry Crowne is a down-on-his-luck middle-aged man. He is a good ordinary everyday guy and a diligent worker who's having fun working hard for his company which eventually fires Larry. Left by his wife and now getting fired forces Larry to sell his house. But what annoys him the most is the fact that he's got fired just because he didn't go to college. So, this navy veteran then apply to community college taking class of Informal Speech with a very unique lecturer/professor with her own marital problem, Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts). Mercedes or Mercy is a lazy teacher who initially hates the fact that she has to teach this small class filled with 10 people (10 funny characters actually), Mercy has lost her passion in making improvement on the life of her students.

Larry Crowne befriends colorful people of varied age in her class and he also attended the economy class to improve his knowledge to overcome the mortgage strangling his neck. Nevertheless, cheerful and subtly optimistic trait of Larry seems able to overcome any problem. Will he find a job this time? And could he get more initimate to the beautiful professor?

Clean, delicate and smart are the type of jokes in Larry Crowne. With a premise so simple and so harmless, it's a good thing the filmmakers don't turn the events into something crass. If one wants to be honest about this movie, one will say Larry Crowne is a boring man in a boring story. But... (and it's a big but), Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts performances and chemistry once again save the day. Larry Crowne is a middle-aged fairy tale for anyone stuck with financial problems and passionless life. But instead of being spun into tragedy or deep drama like The Beaver (2011) --still in Cinemas--, the writers (Nia Vardalos and Tom Hanks again) sprinkled optimism every now and then so the viewers are invited to also feel the blessing of subtle sunny disposition of Larry. And the best part, the comedy is solid, so chuckles are to be expected. But probably Larry Crowne would appeal more to the parents or grandparents for which I think Larry Crowne is anything but crude. It's a feel-good...

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
posted: Saturday, 30 July 2011 11:38 pm