Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks teams up with Oscar winner Julia Roberts for Larry Crowne, a comedy/drama/romance which also finds Mr. Hanks behind the camera as director. And as if wearing two hats wasn’t enough, Hanks dons three, writing the screenplay with Nia Vardalos.
And what’s Hanks’ connection to Ms. Vardalos, you ask? Vardalos starred in the sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Fat Wedding, which Hanks’ Playtone company produced.
The Plot: Until he was downsized, affable, amiable Larry Crowne was a superstar team leader at the big-box company where he’s worked since his time in the Navy. Underwater on his mortgage and unclear on what to do with his suddenly free days, Larry heads to his local college to start over. There he becomes part of a colorful community of outcasts, also-rans and the overlooked all trying to find a better future for themselves…often moving around town in a herd of scooters.
In his public-speaking class, Larry develops an unexpected crush on his teacher Mercedes Tainot, who has lost as much passion for teaching as she has for her husband. The simple guy who has every reason to think his life has stalled will come to learn an unexpected lesson: when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might discover your reason to live.
