Wow! This is a great movie. Not perfect...but very, very good. Larry Crowne (played by Tom Hanks) is a Navy veteran who served as a cook during his 20 year stint. Now, after divorce and loss of his job at U Mart he enrolls in a community college and takes a course on informal speech and another course on economics. He ditches his gas guzzling SUV and buys a motor scooter from his neighbor Lamar (played by Cedric the Entertainer) and befriends and is befriended by a group of motor scooter rebels (really!) with a young lady who tries to update his home and his hair style and clothes.
His speech teacher, Mercedes Tainot (played by Julia Roberts) is a burned out frustrated teacher with a husband addicted to laziness, porn and general disrespect. The ten people in the speech class are interesting characters who seem to learn and bond. The huge economics class is taught by Dr. Matsutani (played by George Takei) and Larry learns much from him, including his need to allow the bank to foreclose on his home.
There are many sweet moments in the movie with real teaching and learning going on. The Tainot character probably needs more development (it was difficult to understand why she was so burned out) and we’re so used to negative Hispanic characters in movies and on TV that we’re probably a little surprised about their sincerity as depicted in this movie.
Larry and Mercedes have a very chaste relationship and real love (appropriately) does not blossom until after Larry completes her course with a great grade. The ending is simple and rewarding. It was a very sweet and nice movie. Take the time to see it.
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