After losing his job, Larry Crowne, a handsome man, who has a successful career at a big box company, makes his mind to join university to have a new life, where he falls for his teacher, the thing that inspires his life.
...it's an old-fashioned star vehicle, fashioned for the particular screen personas of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts by Hanks himself, who directed the film and wrote the screenplay with Nia Vardalos. You may recall that he produced her breakthrough film...
John Hanlon
Big Hollywood
June 30, 2013
A likeable and light-hearted comedy that doesn't attempt to be anything more.
Tom Hanks's company Playtone appears to be dedicated to making movies where a Beach-Boys-y soundtrack and 1950s Boy Scout values still inform everything. Not necessarily a bad thing -- just cloying.
To pluck romantic comedy from the jaws of a social crisis is a laudable project, worthy of Preston Sturges, and it's a pity that this featherlight drama-written by Tom Hanks and Nia Vardalos, and directed by Hanks himself-should falter in its task.
Hanks' dorky routine - right on through to the ridiculous ELO-soundtracked end credits as he and Roberts drives around on a scooter in front of a green screen - is thankfully not as draining as one may assume.
Even if you wander into this congealed mess with nothing more demanding in mind than to spend a little time with two charming favorites, do not expect Forrest Gump or Pretty Woman.
