Larry Crowne Offers a Different View of Higher Education

It’s a common story that is becoming more and more common these days: a hardworking man who has been loyal to his place of employment loses his job due to budget cuts. Desperate to improve his station in life, the man decides to pursue a higher education in hopes that this will allow him to find another job and maybe even improve his overall quality of life. Since this is somewhat of a new trend in today’s workforce and education frontiers, it only makes sense that Tom Hanks‘ and Julia Roberts‘ new movie, Larry Crowne, would address this subject.
In Larry Crowne, Hanks portrays the title character, a hardworking man who loses his job at a Wal-Mart-like store. After sitting around his home for a few days, he decides to enroll in an economic and pubic speaking course at his local community college. Roberts plays one of Larry’s teachers, Mercedes Tianot. However, Mercedes dislikes being a teacher and it is quite obvious that she has other things she would rather do than teach a public speaking course, as evidenced by her temporary thrill when she thinks her class only has nine students and, therefore, does not meet the school’s enrollment requirements. As the movie progresses, Larry must learn to overcome his age difference from the other students. It is the relationships that form between Larry, Mercedes, and the other students that keeps this movie interesting.

Overall, this movie does a good job of bringing light to the new generation of adults who are now looking to further their education after being active members of the workforce. I can see it appealing more to my parents than it did to me because it focuses on a man who is having a mid-life crisis, a situation that I cannot exactly relate to. However, it is a nice alternative to other typical summer movies that have been hitting the big screen lately, such as Transformers 3 andBad Teacher. If you are a fan of Julia Roberts or Tom Hanks, then I would recommend seeing this movie in theaters because both actors give wonderful performances in this film. If these actors are not in your top favorites, then maybe you should wait until this movie is available to rent.