Larry Crowne (2011)

Despite dismal reviews Jack and I enjoyed this sweet story of a man rebounding from setbacks, directed by and starring Tom Hanks in the title role and Julia Roberts as the love interest. Larry is charming, resourceful, humble, and makes friends easily in the script by Hanks and Nia Vardalos (star and writer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)--which earned her an Oscar nomination for the original screenplay--and others less popular that I haven't seen). I wrote about Hanks in Angels & Demons, but failed to mention The Terminal (2004) and especially his feature directorial/writing debut That Thing You Do! (1996). Roberts (after I wrote about her in Duplicity she was in Eat Pray Love) gets to both scowl and laugh as Larry's community college teacher Mercedes. The fine supporting cast includes Cedric the Entertainer (Barbershop (2002), Cadillac Records, more) and Taraji P. Henson (terrific in Hustle & Flow (2005) which Jack and I saw together the night Mary Ellen fixed us up, Talk to Me (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which earned her an Oscar nomination, Date Night, and The Karate Kid) as Larry's funny neighbors, the radiant Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Talia, his new best friend from school, Wilmer Valderrama (Fez in That 70's Show, one of Macauley Culkin's friends in Party Monster (2003), and one of the illegal immigrants in Fast Food Nation (2006), among others) as Talia's boyfriend, Grace Gummer (Meryl Streep's daughter and sister of Mamie Gummer, who was in Off the Map on ABC) as the lacrosse classmate, Bryan Cranston (Malcom in the Middle's dad, the main reason for Greg Kinnear's road trip in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), the multiple-Emmy-winning chemistry-teacher-turned-cancer-patient-meth-cooker Walt in Breaking Bad, and a small part in The Lincoln Lawyer, and more) as Mercedes' husband, and Rita Wilson (covered in The Art of Getting By), Hanks' wife, in a funny cameo as the bank officer with the platinum hair. Apparently Wilson, whose mother is Greek, was instrumental in getting Hanks to produce My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which is now the top-earning independent movie of all time--over $200 million. Vardalos provides the voice of the Map Genie.

James Newton Howard's (written up in Salt, also scored The Green Hornet, among his 129 scoring credits) music won't be particularly remembered (here's a track), as the soundtrack album is mostly songs (see the track list and listen to clips here and, if you care to, stream the whole Tyler Hilton song, Faithful, here).

One of the complaints reviewers (36% on rottentomatoes, 51% from audiences) have is that it's not hard enough for Larry. If you want to see people hit harder economically, there's The Company Men or the superior Everything Must Go. This, however is a classic example of negative reviews dominating the internet, while plenty of people are loving it--it was #6 at the box office last weekend in its fourth week. Entertaining and easy-going, not a bad way to spend your time on a hot summer day, and you can take your teenage kids or younger (see this for the reasons it's PG-13 and not PG).