I'd liked to have given Larry Crowne a higher rating because it had an interesting premise that's so different from the regular rom-coms that are commonplace these days. A middle aged, recently fired man reassesses his goals and goes back to college to get a degree. He meets various personalities as he enters student life, falling in love along the way, and finds himself and his place in life.
The two biggest setbacks to the story were the love angle, and Julia Roberts. I wouldn't have had a problem with Roberts had she not acted so disinterested in her role. She had a contemptuous look on her face, much like that of a sneering aristocrat, throughout the movie such that it was hard to understand how she fell for Larry Crowne. Her character is so self absorbed in her misery and long suffering marriage that it's incredible that she somehow managed to pick Larry out as a suitor, when she probably had dozens of chances before Larry even came onto the scene.
So the love angle did not make sense because Roberts's disdain and Larry's innocent, aw-shucks by gosh innocent guile did not create any decent chemistry and so it became more of a distracting filler.
The other cast members were average and typecast, though Cedric did raise some smiles with his small screen time, as was George Takei as the weird Economics professor (but what was Taraji P. Henson thinking?) and mostly forgettable. Nia Vardolos managed to squirm her way into the movie as the annoying voice of the malfunctioning GPS (which sums up her efforts in Hollywood post My Big Fat Greek Wedding) Hanks was good as the man with the troubles and while it would have been good to have the romantic portion in the movie I would have preferred it with someone more worthy.
I suppose the blame should go to the writing, which was weak at times but mostly formulaic. Despite shared writing credits by Hanks and Vardolos to me this had the smell of Nia's influence on the project, thereby contributing to the rather disappointing effect.
It's worth watching if you're a Tom Hanks fan. He hasn't been a character this naive since Forrest Gump. Julia Roberts and the writing bring down what could have been a typical but enjoyable rom-com.
The two biggest setbacks to the story were the love angle, and Julia Roberts. I wouldn't have had a problem with Roberts had she not acted so disinterested in her role. She had a contemptuous look on her face, much like that of a sneering aristocrat, throughout the movie such that it was hard to understand how she fell for Larry Crowne. Her character is so self absorbed in her misery and long suffering marriage that it's incredible that she somehow managed to pick Larry out as a suitor, when she probably had dozens of chances before Larry even came onto the scene.
So the love angle did not make sense because Roberts's disdain and Larry's innocent, aw-shucks by gosh innocent guile did not create any decent chemistry and so it became more of a distracting filler.
The other cast members were average and typecast, though Cedric did raise some smiles with his small screen time, as was George Takei as the weird Economics professor (but what was Taraji P. Henson thinking?) and mostly forgettable. Nia Vardolos managed to squirm her way into the movie as the annoying voice of the malfunctioning GPS (which sums up her efforts in Hollywood post My Big Fat Greek Wedding) Hanks was good as the man with the troubles and while it would have been good to have the romantic portion in the movie I would have preferred it with someone more worthy.
I suppose the blame should go to the writing, which was weak at times but mostly formulaic. Despite shared writing credits by Hanks and Vardolos to me this had the smell of Nia's influence on the project, thereby contributing to the rather disappointing effect.
It's worth watching if you're a Tom Hanks fan. He hasn't been a character this naive since Forrest Gump. Julia Roberts and the writing bring down what could have been a typical but enjoyable rom-com.