Economic reality darkens modern fairy tale ‘Larry Crowne’

A squeezably soft movie for hard times, "Larry Crowne" takes a topical premise -- an average Joe downsized out of a job -- and turns it into heartwarming, crowd-pleasing mush.

There are probably plenty of moviegoers more than willing to embrace "Larry Crowne." But count me out when it comes to the big group hug.

Too bad, because Tom Hanks -- in his second big-screen foray as co-writer and director as well as star -- seems to be moving backward.

After all, his 1996 writing-directing debut -- "That Thing You Do!" -- at least had nostalgic charm on its side as it followed the flash-in-the-pan fortunes of a Beatles-era pop group, the one-hit Wonders.

By contrast, "Larry Crowne" supposedly deals with the here and the now. And those of us in Las Vegas know all too well that today's economic climate is no laughing matter.

Deep down, Hanks probably knows it, too, yet he doesn't seem to know how to balance the movie's easy humor with more than a passing nod to the way things are these days.

Or maybe he just doesn't care to let real life interfere with his fairy-tale account of "Larry Crowne's" title character.

A genuine, genial prince of a guy, the divorced Larry (who else but Hanks?) spent 20 years as a Navy cook.

These days, he's part of another uniformed force -- as a gung-ho employee at U-Mart, a big-box retailer where Larry's been Employee of the Month more times than he can count.

That is, until the higher-ups inform him that he can go no higher in the company because of his lack of a college education -- and show him the door.

When the going gets tough, Larry gets going -- to the local community college. There, he falls under the influence of two strong-willed women.

One is Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts), his public-speaking instructor, whose brittle, surly demeanor fails to disguise a far from satisfying private life. Sure enough, it's her writer husband ("Breaking Bad's" Bryan Cranston), a lazy freeloader who's more interested in surfing the Internet -- to gaze at photos of bikini babes forever threatening to pop their skimpy tops -- than working on his next sci-fi opus.

The other: free-spirited Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw ), a fellow student who appoints herself Larry's personal makeover coach. She redoes his wardrobe, gets him a new haircut, gives his house the feng-shui treatment and invites him to join her and her scooter-riding pals -- including her inexplicably jealous boyfriend (Wilmer Valderrama, displaying a killer deadpan glare).

Silly boy. Talia's just trying to find Larry an age-appropriate squeeze. If only Ms. Tainot (rhymes with Pain-oh) weren't already married ...

And so it goes in "Larry Crowne's" storybook realm, where all it takes to overcome life's little complications is a ready will, a ready smile -- and a movie full of people just waiting to help him out on his quest to build a new life.

Co-written by Hanks and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding's" Nia Vardalos, "Larry Crowne" suffers from its curiously passive protagonist's lack of reaction to the reversals in his life.

It also suffers from the script's obvious, on-the-nose characterizations -- or, more accurately, caricaturizations -- and a pace that too often slips from easygoing to slack.

Hanks also strains to create visual variety with some offbeat camera angles that fairly scream "Look at me! I'm directing!" (And working hard to distract the audience in the process.)

As if to compensate for the movie's relatively bland title character, "Larry Crowne" also boasts a host of aggressively colorful supporting turns, from Mbatha-Raw's perky quirks to George "Sulu" Takei's amusing eccentricities as Larry's no-nonsense economics professor.

There's more, from the woefully underused Cedric the Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson as his neighbors, dedicated proprietors of an ongoing yard sale, to his rainbow-coalition classmates (played by, among others, class clown Rami Malek and sporty Grace Gummer , another of Meryl Streep's lookalike daughters).

At least they're pleasant company. As is Larry, of course -- another of Hanks' goofily endearing nice guys who always manage to finish first.

That's more than we can say for the hostile Ms. Tainot -- until the inevitable magic moment arrives for Roberts to break out the beaming watermelon smile and the trademark bubble-up laughter.

Those moves might seem out of character for the uptight Ms. Tainot.

But never mind. "Larry Crowne" doesn't.

It's far more concerned with allowing its two stars -- who first teamed in 2007's considerably edgier "Charlie Wilson's War" -- to do that thing they do.

Whether that thing makes much sense or not.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.