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Tom Hanks wears his cozy Gumpish grin through nearly all of “Larry Crowne,” but only the trademark toothiness of co-star Julia Roberts creates any sort of infectious joy in this poorly conceived, weirdly fluctuating dramedy. Playing the rigid college prof to Hanks’ back-to-school title character (he was coldly let go from a Target-like store for lack of higher ed), the (still very) pretty woman works extra hard to charm up a one-dimensional character in a non-dimensional romance. One shudders to think how deeply irredeemable the movie might have been had the female lead been played by, say, Hanks’ co-writer, Nia Vardalos.
Hanks, who also directed, aims for a feel-good, recession-era date film infused with middle-class humility, but winds up with a lot of boring, conflict-free mush that reeks of writer pretense, not to mention white supremacy. Larry may live across the street from a black couple (cartoonish, yard-sale-holding gypsies played by Cedric the Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson), but it’s clear he’s been in a milky bubble, and it takes him being stripped of his dignity to come down to the level of the film’s parade of minorities, who line up to help him regain traction. Among them are George Takei as a cackling econ professor, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Wilmer Valderrama as “edgy” members of a motorscooter gang (the former and Larry have an awkward May-December rapport). A treacly final send-off on Larry’s lawn is primed for a rendition of “We Are the World.”
Things aren’t much better in the classroom. Before stumbling into unconvincing love with Larry, Roberts’s flatly irritable teach (burned by a dramatically threadbare, dead-end marriage) deigns to give public speaking lessons to more forcedly colorful supporting characters. In economics, newly hip Larry gets caught texting, and the cute little messages appear on screen, as if anyone needed to be reminded of “You’ve Got Mail.” But there you have the summed-up fate of “Larry Crowne” – it’s another second-round star pairing that can’t make the grade.
Larry Crowne
PG-13
One-and-a-half reels out of four
Now playing in area theaters
Rango
PG
Available Tuesday
Johnny Depp voices the title character in this richly textured, extraordinary animated western, which sees a domestic chameleon roll into a desert town like a tumbleweed, only to save it from evil varmints.
The ace voice cast includes Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina and a slitheringly great Bill Nighy, and at the helm is Gore Verbinski, who delivers a better film than any in his “Pirates” trilogy. SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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