Larry Crowne

Two of Hollywood's biggest stars come together again. Unlike their previous effort, 'Charlie Wilson's War', this is a much simpler film.

Simple is a perfect way to describe the film. Tom Hanks was a producer on Nia Vardalos's film 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'. I'm sure that after that they decided to write a film together. The result of which is 'Larry Crowne'. I get the feeling that if anyone else had starred in or directed this film it would not have gotten as big a distribution as it does. The story is very simple and not very thrilling. I don't mean action packed or anything but just very little happens. While it is nice to have a story about a man reassessing his life after a major change at least make it an interesting story with a few exciting events to make it worth seeing. It might have been good if you saw him struggle a bit more in what happens to him after he loses his job. He meets new people and makes new friends but it all seems a bit too easy. At least let something bad happen to him or have some form of decent struggle happen that makes the story more thrilling.

The film does skate by and is bearable by its leads. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts have enough charm to make the film viewable. As mentioned above the story lets them down and does not require them to work too hard. I hazard a guess that Julia took a pay cut to do this a favour to his friend Tom. I'm sure her presence would have helped in getting financing too. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is excellent as Tom's study buddy at college. The other cast do decent jobs with their small roles but not much to mention.

A very disappointing effort from Tom Hanks. I expected something better. Maybe if you like something very easy to watch that you don't have to think too carefully about then this film is for you.