Larry Crowne

First off I should state that I love Tom Hanks. From Forest Gump to his many movies, his involvement in numerous HBO shows that were wonderful to his always stellar turns as a guest on Letterman to Saturday Night Live ( I always chuckle at the thought of Mr. Short Term Memory) Hanks is one of my favorite people.

So it was not a hard decision to take the wife to see his new movie. Co starring Julia Roberts leading an extremely likable cast it seemed like a sure bet.

The verdict: Good not great. Certainly with a few chuckles, and for me a few laugh out louds. The scene of his firing or downsizing from U Mart and the feelings felt after are certainly ones I and too many middle aged American men can relate with. I have heard critics complaining that his feelings and angst were not mined enough but I think it is aafe to say the movie was more concerned with the recovery than the depths.

Prodded to return to college by his game show winning, eternal yard sale proprietor Lamar ( Cedric the Entertainer) Crowne's likable every man soon wins over the most cynical of people including his professor Mercy Tainot. ( Roberts)

Mercy has her own problems including a porn obsessed husband who as they break up remarks how much he likes big knockers and calls her a washboard. Not much for your self esteem in those comments.

This cast in very likable. Gugu Mbatha- Raw as Talia the queen of a group of scooter riding students who befriends Larry and assists him out of his post divorce funk. George Takei as an economics professor who admires everything about Crowne except his penchant for cell phone use in class, Willmer Valderamma as Talia's boyfriend, and for me the most winning turn as Steve Dibiasi by Rami Malek. Dibiase a seeming moron who ends up in the same speech class actually learns soemthing along the way. Watching the movie I tried to place where I had seen him before and once home googled and came up with him being Snafu in The Pacific, another Hanks effort. Clearly Tom takes care of his friends.

The movie is much better than some critics will tell you, not all movies have to say a great deal. Some movies just have to be likable and make you smile. This movie is full of likable people doing likable things. I think we could use a few more of those.