Larry Crowne (2011)

After losing his job, a middle-aged man reinvents himself by going back to college.

Director:

Tom Hanks

Writers:

Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos

Stars:

Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Sarah Mahoney

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hanks	...	Larry Crowne
Sarah Mahoney	...	Samantha
Roxana Ortega	...	Alvarez
Randall Park	...	Trainee Wong
Brady Rubin	...	Dorothy Genkos
Alex Quijano	...	Team Leader #1
Tina Huang	...	Team Leader #2
E-Kan Soong	...	Team Leader #3
Tarina Pouncy	...	Team Leader #4
Sy Richardson	...	Avery
Julie Wagner	...	Vacuum Shopper
Rob Riggle	...	Jack Strang
Erin Underwood	...	Mom with Baby
Dale Dye	...	Cox
Barry Sobel	...	Cubby

Storyline

Until he was downsized, affable, amiable Larry Crowne (Hanks) was a superstar team leader at the big-box company where he's worked since his time in the Navy. Underwater on his mortgage and unclear on what to do with his suddenly free days, Larry heads to his local college to start over. There he becomes part of a colorful community of outcasts, also-rans and the overlooked all trying to find a better future for themselves...often moving around town in a herd of scooters. In his public-speaking class, Larry develops an unexpected crush on his teacher Mercedes Tainot (Roberts), who has lost as much passion for teaching as she has for her husband. The simple guy who has every reason to think his life has stalled will come to learn an unexpected lesson: when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might discover your reason to live.

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Plot Keywords:

college | scooter | bus stop | community college | speech class | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 July 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Talk of the Town

Filming Locations:

Reseda, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$16,098,795 (USA) (1 July 2011)

Gross:

$35,565,975 (USA) (12 August 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Vendome Pictures, Playtone Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Universal Pictures, almost 75% of the movie's audience on the picture's opening weekend was older than age 50.

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Goofs

The bar code on Larry's college photo ID spells his name incorrectly as Larry Crown instead of Crowne.

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Quotes

Dr. Matsutani: They call them smart phones, but only dummies use them in my class.

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Crazy Credits

Just before the credits switch from Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks to rolling credits on black background, Roberts mouths 'Hi Mom'.

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Connections

References The Flintstones (1960)

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Soundtracks

The Stroke
Written by Billy Squier (as William Squier)
Performed by Billy Squier
Courtesy of Capitol Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User Reviews

Tries too hard, and simply doesn't succeed

I had expected that Hanks would manage to do a decent screenplay, but he seems to be really going for a lot of quirk, and he simply didn't pull it off. By contrast, the romance plot line was just taken as read, and he hardly even bothered devoting five full minutes to it. Acting-wise, Hanks was also trying way too hard. Julia Roberts, on the other hand, completely phoned it in. For the record, I prefer the latter, if only because it seemed proportional to the weight of the film itself.

It's not painfully bad, but even for a fairly by-the-book RomCom, it wasn't very good either.