Larry Crowne (2011) Review

Larry Crowne finds himself in a dilemma when he loses his job and decides to go to college. Something he never done when he was younger due to being in the Navy. This causes massive changes in his life, reinventing himself.

We cannot help but feel sorry for Larry in the way he was fired from his job. For not attending college when he was younger, despite the years of experience he has working in the shop. Having to sell some of his personal items, including downsizing to a scooter from his car to get to college. It is briefly mentioned that he his divorced and paid his wife her part of the house they lived in together.

The two classes we see Larry taken are with Professor Tainot (Roberts) and Dr. Matsutani (Takei). Both of these professors are very different, yet both have such an impact on helping Larry turn his life around and accept that losing his job is not the worst thing that could happen. Another big impact on his life is meeting fellow student Talia (Mbatha-Raw) who helps him change his style in clothes, sorts his house out and invites him to join the scooter club.

I had been looking forward to this film for months, Julia Roberts is my favorite actress and lets face it Tom Hanks can do no wrong really. But this film was rather disappointing, by the time we reached the end a lot of what went on seemed rather pointless. I tried so hard to really like this film, but that wasn’t really possible. Not enough Roberts for my liking!

We see Tainot struggle with her marriage, which it is so obvious that she does not want to be in and she does not seem to have a passion for teaching anymore at the beginning. The class which includes Larry seem to change this for her as the film goes on and she gets rid of her husband. She finds that passion for teaching again and really has a life change as well.

We were all waiting for Larry and Taniot to become involved with each other, but they don’t really start anything too serious, until the ending. Which I thought was a nice way to round it all off. This film was about learning to accept that everything happens for a reason, and don’t let the bad times defeat you. Keep on fighting to make your life better for yourself. Also it is never too late to learn, would be the other main point.

While it was not terrible, very watchable I just felt that it lacked something . . . I just cannot really explain what that something was. It had it’s funny moments, and one liners which I found myself laughing at but very flat in parts.