Larry Crowne

Directed by Tom Hanks

(PG-13)

**

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Though “too cute for its own good,” Larry Crowne is “hard to dislike,” said Steven Rea in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Credit this to stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, who deliver the particular all-American charm that each has all but patented. Hanks, who also directed, stars as a middle-aged guy who, after losing his job at a big-box retail store, enrolls in community college and falls in love with his public-speaking teacher, played by Roberts. The results are mixed, said Claudia Puig in USA Today. “Larry Crowne is both a dated, lackluster comedy and a genial, old-fashioned romance.” While the stars have “an easy chemistry,” the script is loaded with leaden jokes and scenes that “fall resoundingly flat.” Blame those failures on screenplay co-writer Nia Vardalos, of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame, said Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. The story, about a nice guy who becomes nicer, “carries blandness to a point beyond tedium.” I watched this movie “with all the pleasure I bring to watching bread rise.”