While many actors build a legacy in Hollywood, few have careers as highly regarded as Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Spanning four decades of cinema, these two can almost do no wrong in the eyes of movie-goers everywhere. Their latest, Larry Crowne, varies very little from the duo’s average fare, but something tells me that is exactly what their fans wanted.

Larry Crowne is quite the man of interest. After a career as a chef in the Navy lead to business work, Larry recently found himself unemployed and single after downsizing at work sent his life into a tailspin. Hoping to start fresh and ensure such hardships never fall on his shoulders again, Larry decides to attend the local community college and, from what we see in the film, only study speech and economics. However, as with every tale of starting over, life had more planned for Larry than he could ever imagine (but we as viewers can see coming from a country mile).

Larry needs to get his life back in order, but he can’t stop hanging out with the lovely, (much) younger student that introduced him and his scooter to the campus scooter gang and reset his fashion and home decor choices. On top of this, there is an undeniable chemistry between him and his Speech teacher, played by Julia Roberts, and his need to find new work as well as manage his rising debt.

At face value, there is a lot to love about Larry Crowne. It wants so hard to be relatable to the current state of America that it constantly drops cultural references and storylines that seem present for the sole purpose of seeming more “real.” Larry buys his Scooter after seeing how much he could save over filling up his SUV, at least two references to social media, Larry is facing foreclosure, Julia Roberts’ husband is a professional blogger, and the twenty-something students all seem more interested in things other class. It as if they took a script from the 90’s about a man starting over, dusted it off, added ten pages of “modernizing,” and turned it in.

However, my biggest problem with Larry Crowne had absolutely nothing to do with the story and everything to do with the stars. No one in their right mind would buy either Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts as your “average citizen.” They are two of the biggest icons of film, ever, and you cannot simply pretend that is not the case. Also, both of their faces seem more plastic than human these days, which makes the idea that their “well-meaning, small town people” more of a joke than a sentiment.

On the surface, Larry Crowne is a super accessible film about starting over halfway through life against your will and the journey of self-discovery that it brings. However, poor casting, almost embarrassingly obvious attempts to be “relevant,” and an overall underwhelming story will likely leave most moviegoers feeling a bit cheated for their money. That said, fans of Hanks and Roberts who want more of what they have seen over the past thirty+ years will find something to enjoy here, but promises how on enjoyable it will actually be.

Review written by: James Shotwell

• Author
• Recent Posts

James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

Latest posts by James Shotwell (see all)

• 2015’s Most Underrated Films - December 29, 2015
• Passing The Torch: The End Of An Era For UTG - December 1, 2015
• UTG PREMIERE: Before The Streetlights – “Private Browser” - November 26, 2015