Learn, Larry, Learn

There are many things I could say about the 2011 movie Larry Crowne but the one idea that keeps coming to mind is that it was meant to be sort of an anti-Crash. Instead of giving the movie-going public yet another scenario a la the 2005 movie Crash in which people of varying races and ethnicities spent most of their time symbolically tearing each other apart, Larry Crowne gave us a scenario in which the same variety of people came together to accomplish a common goal. In this case, the goal was the intellectual enabling of recently unemployed store clerk Larry Crowne.

What made Larry Crowne so special? The movie never really said though I imagine it has something to do with the fact that he was both a nice guy and a character played by Tom Hanks. A more sophisticated analysis was downplayed by a screenplay that found more pleasure in a running gag involving confiscated cell phones than in any serious social commentary.

For the record, the movie deserved some credit for inspiring my little sister to think seriously about going back to school like the title character did. However apart from that, the best thing I could say about the film is that it never promised to be more than a pleasant way to spend two hours enjoying the local movie theatre's air conditioning and on that one point, it most definitely delivered.