Larry Crowne Affair

Ok, I will admit going to watch Larry Crowne was not my first choice.  It’s not that I am not a Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts fan, but without the CG, I didn’t see the point in seeing it on the big screen.  However, I needed to bomb my house for bugs, the dogs were going to be on a friend’s porch and she is a huge Tom Hanks fan and wanted to see it.  So after depositing dogs on her porch, setting off the bug bombs, we left for the theater for an afternoon showing.

First off, I must have the most magnetic personality in the world.  We were the first people in the place.  The next dozen people that came into the theater all sat right in front of us, beside us, behind us.  Everyone was within about a 4 row radius….what gives?

What I liked most about the film was Hanks or Roberts were not romanticized.  They were likeable, everyday people who were not perfect.  Shit happens to them.  They have to go on day by day, just like the rest of us.  I think that is what made it most appealing to me – they were me.  I have experienced some of the things they were going through. 

Hanks is a 20 year navy veteran who is let go from his job due to not having a college education.  He realizes he has to do something to move forward, so off to his local community college.  Roberts is a college professor who is supporting her blog-writing, porn ogling husband.  Hanks is bewildered with the new directions in his life, Roberts is bitchy about hers.  And the two meet for an 8am class, 3 days a week.

Now for those of us who have been to college (my seated class days were back in the 70’s), those early classes are not always the best for students who really care about taking the class.  Coincidence, my speech class was at 7am.  Luckily, the Vietnamese couple who owned the local donut shop opened at 6am and they had the best cinnamon rolls.

One of the best parts of the movie was George Takei as the Economics professor, author of Econ Prime, the textbook for the class.  He was actually a little scary.  Makes you wonder how much Botox and plastic surgery he has endured.

Hanks is taken under the wing of a cute co-ed who helps him navigate the waters of community college, the scooter gang, and his new life.  Some people might feel that is a little far-fetched some young 20 something hanging with a 50 something, but I can see it. Those young whippersnappers will actually socialize with us old fossils and fun can be had on both sides.

Hanks is just the nice guy who comes into Roberts world at a time when she is getting rid of the old.  And slowly, but surely, they both realize it.  Like I said, a nice movie.  No wild action scenes, no CG, just a nice, feel-good movie, one that you can go back and watch time and time again.

Spoiler Alert:  cute scene…when Larry tells Talia her new tattoo in Chinese characters does not say what she thinks it says, but rather is Chinese for soy sauce.

Will I buy the DVD, probably.  And watch it with ‘Runaway Bride’ for a feel good weekend.

By the way, I now want to take seated classes at my local community college and ride around on a scooter.