Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
7/17/11
It’s sometimes said that
the mafia was brought down, in part, by the films of Francis Ford Coppola
and Martin Scorsese: that men who looked into the cinematic mirror
movies like The Godfather and Goodfellas created began to
regard themselves with the self-pitying angst those movies encouraged.
Modern movies in general ask us to view life as a tragedy, where all happiness
is fleeting and our mistakes will ultimately render our successes meaningless.
That does, after all, make for great drama. But there’s also something
to be said for a positive worldview: our brains, after all, create
the internal narrative of our lives, and that makes happiness at least
as much of a choice as an objective fact. Therein lies the appeal
of Tom Hanks’ Larry Crowne, a movie about a man who responds to
hard times by putting one foot in front of the other and working toward
a better tomorrow while making some friends willing to give him a hand.
It’s a simple movie, without a lot of Syd Field plot mechanics and not
a cynical bone in its body. But it’s also filled with fun characters,
energetic performances, and solid laughs. It also takes place in
a world I would be very happy to live in.
Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks)
has worked at big box store U-Mart for years and really likes it there.
Summoned to the break room for what he suspects is yet another Employee
of the Month award, he instead is fired. Devastated, he goes home
and prepares to sell some things to try and make ends meet, running afoul
of the perpetual yard sale of his neighbor, lottery winner Lamar (Cedric
the Entertainer). Lamar sets him up with a scooter that’s much better
on gas than his SUV, and suggests he tackle the central reason U-Mart claimed
he was fired by getting a degree from the local Community College.
Larry signs up for two classes, introductions to Economy, taught by the
stern Dr. Matsutani (George Takei), and Speech, presided over by burned-out
Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts). One of his Econ classmates, Talia
(Gugu Mbatha-Raw) notices that scooter and invites Larry to join her “gang”,
a group of free-spirited scooter enthusiasts young enough to be his kids
but with whose youthful enthusiasm his sunny outlook meshes. Soon,
Talia’s upgrading his fashion and decorating sense and facilitating a little
quality time between he and Mrs. Tainot the night she finally dumps her
loser husband Dean (Bryan Cranston). Larry’s making new friends and
seeing his horizons broaden by the day, but it will take a little luck
and a lot of courage for him to turn the page and start a whole new life.
Hanks has described Larry
Crowne in interviews as a retort to an age of cynicism, and it is nothing
if not optimistic. Unrealistically so? Perhaps. But this
much is certain: if there are people who’ve been able to so fully
bounce back from being a victim of the economic downturn as Larry does,
they didn’t do it by surrendering to negativity. And Crowne
is a retort to its time in another way as well: what makes Larry’s
comeback a success isn’t that he makes a killing in the stock market or
becomes U-Mart’s CEO. Happiness, love and freedom are Larry Crowne’s
measures of achievement, and in a time when greed isn’t just good, it’s
everything, it’s nice to see a movie sincerely suggest that a man who’ll
probably never have a stock option can still lead a life that’s in no way
tragic.
One of the movie’s key contentions
is that because Larry’s a good and friendly person, he draws other good
and friendly people to him, and they in turn help him out when he needs
it. And Hanks the filmmaker manages the high-wire act of pulling
off a tone that is relentlessly upbeat without seeming to lack any teeth
at all. Some of this is because Larry’s not Forrest Gump: he
knows he’s in trouble and he has moments of real fear and doubt, he just
doesn’t let those moments consume him. And Mrs. Tainot’s embittered
life shows that not everybody in the Crowne universe is staging
musical numbers in the streets.
Performances are key to striking
this tone, and Hanks does a great job of fusing his two famous personas,
light-on-his-feet comedy guy from the 80’s and Oscar-winning drama guy
from the 90’s. Larry is a nice guy, and you really root for him,
but he doesn’t seem extraordinary in any way. Roberts, who’s played
with variations on “Bitter and Hateful Julia” since the success of My
Best Friend’s Wedding, has never been so delightfully frumpy and mean,
all the while keeping that million dollar smile in reserve. They
make a great romantic comedy team in part because the screenplay has placed
a real obstacle in their path, the fact that they treat their teacher/student
relationship the way grown-ups would, and as such you don’t have to spend
the whole movie yelling “Oh, just kiss her already!”. Mbath-Raw leads
a first-rate supporting cast as that hip girl every stylistically challenged
middle-aged guy wishes would volunteer to make him over, while Wilmer Valderrama
is a hoot as her jealous boyfriend. Rami Malek makes the biggest
impression of a tiny classroom full of fun characters who share the Speech
class with Larry, and George Takei is a delight as the egomaniacal Econ
teacher whose methodical technique includes the occasional evil laugh.
Cedric the Entertainer is his usual charming self, and I have to say I
was amused to see a prominent movie character share my unusual first name.
Hanks shares screenplay credit
with Nia Vardalos, whose quirky, observational sense of humor benefits
from the quality control of having a collaborator to keep her from getting
carried away with local color. I missed not having Peter Scolari
on hand for his usual cameo in his Bosom Buddies co-star’s projects,
but Larry Crowne is very much a creative representation of the Tom
Hanks we expect-an All-American good guy who happens to be a movie star.
The cynical will throw around words like “corny” and “slow”, but for those
of us who never stop hoping that tomorrow will be better than today, it’s
a delightful fairy tale for real people. You’ll get a whole lot farther
seeing Larry Crowne in the mirror than Daniel Plainview. |
