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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Larry Crowne (Film)

by Erin Free | July 18, 2011 16:48 | Edited July 18, 2011 16:49

Once again proving his apt directorial skills, Tom Hanks delivers a warm, engaging and smart charmer, boosted by the huge appeal of its two lead stars.

Now two films into what should be a much more prolific directing career, Hollywood powerhouse actor and producer Tom Hanks proves once again that he has a real knack when it comes to jumping behind the camera. His debut feature film, 1996's That Thing You Do!, was a fizzy, dizzy delight that positively vibrated with a love for pop music and popular culture, with its tale of a fictional sixties pop band on the rise.

 

Now, fifteen years later, Tom Hanks has finally weighed in with a follow up, and with the equally entertaining Larry Crowne, he proves that he was no one-off. Unlike the blockbuster-type flicks in which Hanks often appears as an actor, this warm comedy drama occupies the decidedly less cashed up end of the Hollywood spectrum. Its engaging brand of humanism, however, is worth a lot more than what you can usually get on a big budget.

 

In a typically and supremely sympathetic performance, Tom Hanks is the eponymous American everyman. Larry Crowne is working his way through the after-burn of an ugly divorce when he is suddenly fired from his cherished job in a warehouse shopping store because he has no college degree. Confused and dejected, Larry enrols in his local community college, where he makes new friends (including Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Wilmer Valderrama's scooter riding hipsters) and finds possible romance with one of his lecturers, Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts in her sassiest, sexiest, funniest performance since Erin Brockovich), who tries to smear away the dull ache of her tedious existence with booze and sarcasm.

 

Despite a few lapses in plausibility, Larry Crowne is filled with a positivity and sense of hope that is utterly infectious. Peopled with quirky characters and peppered with genuinely funny and unusual dialogue, Tom Hanks' modest little charmer is a feel-good flick in every non-pejorative sense of the term.