Larry Crowne

After reading mixed reviews on this movie I truly wasn't sure what to expect.  But I opted to take the plunge and give this movie a shot, as I have always been a fan of both Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.  This was one of those movies where you take away several very redeeming qualities from it.  First off, it gives you a break from life for a couple of hours, where you are free to just enjoy a movie that doesn't force you to think too hard.  You are lightly entertained for a couple of hours, and you relax, and simply enjoy the show.  Secondly, the characters in this movie you can really relate to.

I think the mix of reviews by regular folks like you and me comes from several things.  Those that haven't experienced life to the point that Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks have, and have the "entitlement" mentality, won't graps what it means to lose a job, or to feel like your life has been completely wasted; like you are simply going through the motions, with no redeeming value attached to it.  Translation, anyone younger than say, 35, probably will leave the theatre not having a clue as to why they were bored, and just wanted the movie to end.  But for those who have experienced real life, and knows what it means to lose a job, and have to reflect on why life is screwing you so badly, you will walk out of the theatre totally understanding what Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are going through.

Larry Crowne shows us the real human experience, from the everyday guy point of view.  After losing a long-held job at a Wal-Mart type of company, due to the fact that he has not college degree, Larry is forced to deal with what he should do next.  The irony is not lost on me in the reason why he loses his job.  Every politically correct stereotype is used during the scene where Larry is fired.  It's a commentary on how screwed up and backwards our society is, where a guy who has won employee of the month eight previous times, is shown the door because he doesn't have a degree.  Anyone that has lost a job for some stupid off the wall reason will totally get this scene, and the stupidity of it all.

Without giving away too much of the movie, I simply had to laugh when later on in the movie, the guy who is firing Larry from his "U-Mart" job, is shown delivering pizza to Larry as he is packing up his house while moving out.  The karma message in that scene shows that Tom Hanks truly gets it, in showing us that if you do the right thing, and play by the rules, eventually justice will be served.  Bottom line, Larry Crowne simply decides to do what he can to make his life better.  And if that means going to the local community college and making a few friends along the way, then so be it.

Julia Roberts character is a bit more complex.  She's in a deadbeat marriage, with a man who has no goal in life, and spends his day surfing porn on the internet.  Evidently he's content living off of her, and she sees right through this.  But she's teaching at a local community college, where evidently she's convinced that no one cares about anything she teaches, and that she feels that nothing she does makes a difference.  Until of course, in walks Larry Crowne.

Bottom line, the movie teaches us that even though we may not think so, everything we do affects others.  And if we actually care for others, and give a little of ourselves to others we can effect positive change in others lives.  This movie certainly wasn't trying to address anything from a spiritual aspect, but even without trying we see how God can use us, to affect the lives of others in a positive way.  Just care about someone else, and bring a smile to their face every day, and show them a better way of living, by sharing the love of Jesus Christ with them.  While you'll probably never see Tom Hanks even remotely hint at Jesus Christ, this is the message the movie is trying to send I believe.  Care for others, make them smile, and bring meaning to their lives by investing yourself in them.  And through this, we can all make the world a better place, one person at a time.