Tag: Tom Hanks

Review: The Phoenician Scheme

Thirteen feature films into Wes Anderson’s filmography, you probably know what to expect: cinematic dollhouses, picture postcards, familial issues, and whimsy. It would be easy to say he keeps making the same film, but they’re always variations on a theme—like a chef continually refining a signature dish. Which is perhaps why THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME stands out: it feels like a conscious, iterative evolution of the Anderson model.

All the familiar elements are still present, of course, right from the locked-off opening shot of 1950s arms dealer and industrialist Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) sitting in a near-empty plane cabin. But when Korda survives yet another assassination attempt, triggering surreal black-and-white visions of an afterlife judging his life, the film begins to explore unexpectedly weightier terrain.

That’s not to say Anderson, collaborating again with Roman Coppola (who shares a story credit), has abandoned his inky comedy. Joined by his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton, slipping into the Andersonverse as if she’s always been there) and her wary tutor-assistant Bjørn (Michael Cera), Korda crisscrosses the globe to swindle investors and cover a ballooning budget shortfall. That gap, naturally, has been created by meddling government agent Excalibur (Rupert Friend), whose sabotage includes driving up the price of building materials.

Relying on a rhythmic repetition of structure—each encounter involving an argument, an unusual event, an assassination attempt, and some kind of accord—Anderson and del Toro craft a character on an unlikely redemption arc. We meet basketball-playing investors Reagan and Leland (Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston) in a tunnel; freedom fighter Sergio (Richard Ayoade) wrecking chandeliers in a nightclub owned by Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric); and a hand-pumped blood transfusion with Jeffrey Wright. The cameos and supporting parts are too numerous to list, but Benedict Cumberbatch may have landed the role of a lifetime: often mentioned, appearing only briefly, yet leaving a powerful impression, thanks in part to an equally powerful beard.

Visually and technically, Anderson arranges everything like the meticulously kept shoeboxes that house Korda’s elaborate schemes. Seasoned cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel—whose credits range from Peter Bogdanovich and Jean-Pierre Jeunet to the Coen Brothers, Julie Taymor and Tim Burton—has only previously worked with Anderson on H&M’s Come Together campaign. Here, he brings something distinct to Anderson’s palette, even if it’s not a million miles from the symmetry of regular DP Robert Yeoman.

You could still walk in cold on THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME and know from a single frame that it’s a Wes Anderson joint. There’s no mistaking it by now. Yet there’s a metaphysical undercurrent here that feels fresh, sidestepping the ironic detachment of The Darjeeling Limited or The Grand Budapest Hotel in favour of something more earnest. Anderson continues to refine his recipe, and for now, it’s a course I’m happy to keep exploring.

2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson | WRITERS: Wes Anderson (Story by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola) | CAST: Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 29 May 2025 (Australia), 30 May 2025 (USA)

June 13, 2025
Review: Inferno

Dan Brown has a lot to answer for. While he didn’t exactly create the conspiracy thriller, he certainly popularised it for this century with the massive success of his 2000 novel Angels & Demons and its 2003 sequel, The Da Vinci Code. Its film adaptation led to countless imitators, not least of which was the National Treasure series. It’s been 7 years since the last Robert Langdon adventure, and while the world wasn’t exactly clamouring for another outing, here it is.

Suffering horrific visions of hell on Earth, Langdon (Tom Hanks) awakens in a Florence hospital room with no memory of how he arrived in the country, or why there are people out to kill him. Attending doctor Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) helps him to escape, but they soon find themselves embroiled in an art world puzzle that is connected to Betrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), a charismatic influencer who is totally into Malthusian population control.

The logic of the puzzles that make up the “secret code” genre require a fairly straightforward narrative. The clues can’t be so easy that there’s no challenge for the leads, nor can they be so tricky that the audience couldn’t figure it out without a little help. INFERNO takes the frustrating middle ground, deliberately obscuring key pieces of information due to Langdon’s memory loss, but laying the mostly Dante related clues on thick and fast to create the illusion of intellect.

Hanks has been playing this version of himself so long that he could probably do it in his sleep, and while we’re not suggesting that he sleepwalks his way through INFERNO, he definitely spends a fair bit of it drifting in and out of consciousness. Yet the bigger issue is with the characters around him, who are merely perfunctory plot puppets, positioned to prolong the pace of the piece. Jones is particularly problematic, all too willing to go along with the events, which either indicates she is in on the conspiracy or a little bit dense. Meanwhile, priceless artifacts are either readily accessible or wantonly destroyed, meaning that there’s no sense of challenge to the various stages. The glorious shots of Europe are routinely squandered on the “nausea cam” used to show Langdon’s altered state as he druggily stumbles across the continent.

INFERNO isn’t a terrible thriller, it’s just not a terribly ambitious one. Ron Howard’s presence is barely felt, perhaps as a contractual obligation to the series. More disappointingly, it doesn’t even play to its own strengths, especially not the award-winning cast that includes Omar Sy and Irrfan Khan to name a few. The only real puzzle to be solved is how many more conspiracies can be squeezed out of gallery.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2016 | US | DIR: Ron Howard | WRITERS: David Koepp | CAST: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Irrfan Khan | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony(AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 121 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 13 October 2016 (AUS) [/stextbox]

October 13, 2016
Review: Sully

“It’s been a while since New York had news this good, especially with an airplane in it.” Watching the recreation of US Airways Flight 1549 veering through the buildings of New York City, it’s impossible not to be reminded of 9/11. In fact, it’s a parallel that director Clint Eastwood makes multiple times throughout SULLY, the biopic of the captain who safely landed a passenger jet in the Hudson River after losing both of its engines during takeoff. The incident was later dubbed “The Miracle on the Hudson,” although as this film sets out to prove, miracles don’t happen by themselves or without healthy doses of skepticism.

Eastwood wastes little time in showcasing the spectacular point-of-view shots of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and First Officer Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) as they steer the plane across the Manhattan skyline. Based partly on Sullenberger’s autobiography Highest Duty, Todd Komarnicki’s script spends its brief running time looking at the aftermath of the event, from the media frenzy to the formal investigation into the accident. Punctuated with formative moments from Sully’s life, and phone conversations with his wife Lorraine (Laura Linney), the film is an attempt to scratch beneath the public spectacle to some version of the objective “truth.”

Eastwood has a reputation for a point-and-shoot approach to filmmaking, but here the technique works to his advantage, laying out the facts and allowing us to judge them for ourselves. The film is one of numbers and facts, mostly uncomplicated by overt sentimentality. The overwrought emotions are certainly chomping at the bit to get out, and they do in the last act with gusto, but Eastwood keeps them restrained with a systematic checking off of the principal moments of public record. However, this does have the downside of being repetitive, as the 208 seconds of the crisis play out in a Rashōmon style of alternate perspectives.

As the outcome of the very recent events are well known to the public, the tension in the film comes from the stakes Sully and Skiles face if found responsible for the emergency landing. After 40 years on the job, Sully could potentially be retired without his pension. As such, the performances are key, and Hanks gives a transformative turn as the eponymous captain, wearing the weight of his burden on his moustached face. It’s a shame that formidable Linney is relegated to stay-at-home wife, but this is effectively a two-hander with the equally hirsute Eckhart.

Tom Stern, Eastwood’s regular cinematographer since Blood Work (2002), crafts some spectacular shots of New York, another major character in the film. Tasked with finding new ways of shooting the same 208 seconds several times over, close-ups in the cockpit, vignettes with selected passengers, long shots from New Jersey or bright neon vista of Times Square give the grey winter skylines a visual break and leaves the audience white-knuckling for the duration.

SULLY makes a careful declaration during its slightly trite and idealistic conclusion, noting that it was not Sullenberger alone who saved the 155 people on Flight 1549. Yet the film is named after the captain, as this is very much an essay on what one human can do in the face of catastrophe. Crafted as a optimistic alternative to the historic tragedy that befell New York this century, SULLY works best as an intense character study.

2016 | US | DIR: Clint Eastwood | WRITERS: Todd Komarnicki | CAST: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney | DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8 September 2016 (AUS), 9 September 2016 (US)

September 6, 2016
‘Sully’ official teaser trailer get behind the Miracle on the Hudson

Few of us can forget the vision, and subsequent media frenzy, around the plane that safely landed after a malfunction in the middle of the Hudson River. Roadshow Films has released the teaser trailer for SULLY, Clint Eastwood’s film about the plane’s captain, starring Tom Hanks in the title role. It releases in Australia on 8 September 2016.

On January 15, 2009, the world witnessed the “Miracle on the Hudson” when Captain “Sully” Sullenberger (Hanks) glided his disabled plane onto the frigid waters of the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, an investigation was unfolding that threatened to destroy his reputation and his career. It will be curious to see how the “208 seconds” of his life is expanded into a feature film, but this looks to be more about the media scrum that followed.

SULLY also stars Aaron Eckhart as Sully’s co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, and Laura Linney as Sully’s wife, Lorraine Sullenberger. Eastwood is directing the film from a screenplay by Todd Komarnicki, based on the book Highest Duty by Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow.

June 30, 2016
Rapid Reviews: Captain Phillips

Avast ye! These pirates are swooping aboard the cinemas with nary a peg leg to be seen, but plenty o’ Oscar gold in their sights, mateys. Arrr?

Amidst recent allegations that the real Captain Richard Phillips (portrayed here by Tom Hanks) ignored warnings and took his cargo ship into known pirate waters in April 2009, director Paul Greengrass is more interested in what it takes for someone to attempt to hijack one, and in the case of the titular Phillips, defend it. Captain Phillips recounts the true story of the hijacking of container ship Maersk Alabama by a group of Somali pirates led by the young Muse (Barkhad Abdi). What follows is a tense stand-off between the US Navy and the pirates, as they kidnap Phillips in a claustrophobic lifeboat over a four-day period.

Although not directly commenting on the post-9/11 world or the Gulf War, this is familiar territory for the politically engaged Greengrass. He is careful not to endorse the acts of the often desperate pirates, even if newcomer Abdi is an electrifying presence, but the nature of Billy Ray’s (The Hunger Games, State of Play) screenplay gives us ample time to view the issue from more than two angles. As such, it’s a straightforward tale of human survival, but without a corresponding easy moral compass for viewers. Even the depiction of the military is from a procedural point of view, although the immediacy of the trademark handheld Greengrass-Cam™ and the character focused narrative ensures that this is rarely cold or emotionally removed.

Undoubtedly the film is a performance piece for Hanks, yet with the exception of a few ready-made awards ceremony clips, he delivers a familiar pragmatic down-home everyman version of Phillips that is often hard to separate from the Hanks persona. Abdi gives what could have been a stereotypical character some depth, but other casting choices such as the completely wasted Catherine Keener as a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Mrs. Phillips squandered an opportunity for some motivation on the Captain’s side.

A curious chapter from recent history tries valiantly to not praise or damn either side of the coin, and while it is undoubtedly a gripping bit of high seas drama (albeit with a dragging second act), it’s difficult to have an opinion of a film that doesn’t have a strong one of its own.

Rating: ★★★

Captain Phillips is released in Australia on 24 October 2013 from Sony.

October 22, 2013
Trailer: Disney’s ‘Saving Mr. Banks’

While that biography poster of Walt Disney turned out to be an Internet meme, Saving Mr. Banks might be the next best thing. Showcasing the untold story of the making of Disney’s classic Mary Poppins, this is one for lovers of classic Disney and P.L. Travers alike. Tom Hanks as Walt Disney: it just seems so obvious now!

This site has long had a love for the films Walt Disney personally oversaw during his lifetime, and this glimpse into 1961 – a year in which 101 Dalmatians, The Absent Minded Professor and The Parent Trap were also released – will be a joy to see. There’s also an Australian connection: Travers (born Helen Lyndon Goff) was born in Maryborough, Queensland, before moving around Australia where she gained a reputation under her stage name “Pamela Lyndon Travers”. When she settled in Sussex, England in 1933, she began writing Mary Poppins.

Saving Mr. Banks will be released in Australia on 4 February 2014 from Disney.

Two-time Academy Award®–winner Emma Thompson and fellow double Oscar®-winner Tom Hanks headline Disney’s “Saving Mr. Banks,” inspired by the extraordinary, untold backstory of how Disney’s classic “Mary Poppins” made it to the screen.

When Walt Disney’s daughters begged him to make a movie of their favourite book, P.L. Travers’ “Mary Poppins,” he made them a promise—one that he didn’t realise would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney’s plans for the adaptation.

For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn’t budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp.

It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history.

Disney presents “Saving Mr. Banks,” directed by John Lee Hancock, produced by Alison Owen, Ian Collie and Philip Steuer, and written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith. Executive producers are Paul Trijbits, Andrew Mason, Troy Lum and Christine Langan.

July 12, 2013
Epic New Trailer, Director’s Commentary and Poster for Cloud Atlas

The first look at Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer’s Cloud Atlas, adapted from David Mitchell’s novel of the same name, is online as a whopping 5-minute international trailer. It stars Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Bae Doona and James D’Arcy, all in multiple roles.

According to the back of the book, a reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation — the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

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July 26, 2012
80s Bits: Splash

Welcome back to 80s Bits, the weekly column in which we explore the best and worst of the Decade of Shame. With guest writers, hidden gems and more, it’s truly, truly, truly outrageous.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Splash (1984)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Ron Howard

Writers(s): Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, Bruce Jay Friedman

Runtime: 113 minutes

Starring: Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Dody Goodman

Distributor: Touchstone Films

Country: US

Rating: Certified Bitstastic (?)

More 80s Bits

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Splash (1984), directed by Ron Howard, is one of those memorable 80s films that you just can’t fault. It has a perfect mixture of fantasy, comedy, action and romance. It’s based on a mythical mermaid that ends up in the Big Apple.

8-year-old Allen jumps of a boat of the coast of Cape Cod only to be saved from drowning by a magical kiss from a fish girl. Flashing forward, an older Allen (Tom Hanks) imagines the memory to be nothing more than an amazing dream until he washes to shore at the same location after a drunken binge. Having been searching for Allen all her life this blonde-haired blue-eyed beauty ends up naked at the Statue of Liberty, giving tourists their moneys worth.

The amphibious woman names herself after a street sign with full knowledge that the pronunciation of her real name is enough to smash a department store full of TVs. Madison (Daryl Hannah) is excitedly overwhelmed with the discovery of big city living, fashion, shopping and taking a bath, not to mention the discovery of her long-lost love. Allen has the task of bringing this fish out of water up to speed on land-living, but is over the moon with the reality of his fictitious sweetheart. Allen is soon faced with not only coming to terms with Madison’s true identify but also that she is being hunted by a mad sciences and the Military.

Grossing US$69.8 million at the American box office, Splash put both Tom Hank and Daryl Hannah on the map and launched their successful film careers. Hanks got his first major acting role in 1981 as a cross-dressing ad man on a hit sitcom Bosom Buddies. This led to guest appearances on Happy Days and from this Howard saw his potential and cast him in the role of Allen. Hanks of coure starred in other 80s classics including Big, The Money Pit, and Joe Versus The Volcano. Hanks blue-collar appeal took him to A-list Hollywood status receiving Oscars for both Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.

Hannah followed up Splash with a line of similarly toned films such as Roxanne and High Spirits. The blonde bombshell proved her versatility in the 1989 drama Steel Magnolias. The ensemble cast of Splash perfectly gels making the movie a recipe for success. It is strengthened by the late John Candy as Freddie, Allen‘s crass playboy older brother and Eugene Levy adds much dry comic relief as Walter, the obsessed scientist that has luck working against him. The New York backdrop and absolutely awesome soundtrack adds icing to the cake.

Walt Disney Productions signed on to produce the film however they saw the film’s content as inappropriate for the brand and as a result created the Touchstone Films label (now Touchstone Pictures) aimed at an adult audience base. Even so, the nude scenes for the depiction of the beauty were done with innocence and taste.

The movie had a sequel in Splash Too (1988) which follows on with the same lead characters Allen and Madison. but inconsistently follows the ending of the 1984 original for the TV movie release.

Dive into the past to revisit this memorable film history changing movie.

June 1, 2012
Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

An adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 9/11 novel makes a great deal of noise, but not much impact in this sentimental expedition.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Stephen Daldry

Writer(s): Eric Roth

Runtime: 100 minutes

Starring: Thomas Horn, Max Von Sydow, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, John Goodman, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright

Distributor: Roadshow Films

Country: US

Rating: Rental for Sure (?)

More info

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The attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 left almost 3000 dead, and arguably shaped the course of the first decade of the 21st century. Shaking America out of its complacency, it is difficult to imagine an aspect of life that hasn’t been touched in some way in the aftermath of this tragic event. Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, which serves as the basis for this film, deals with the individual voices in New York City, depicting a narrative that reflects a young man and an older man’s point of view. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close would seem to have all the right ingredients for a gold derby, coming with the weight of Academy Award favourite Stephen Daldry, but as the film might suggest, you can’t predict everything.

Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), the son of Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks), plays scavenger hunt games with his father around the city to help Oskar get over his social awkwardness. Through a fractured narrative, we learn that Thomas has been killed in the 9/11 attacks, and Oskar has withdrawn almost completely, especially unable to relate to his mother (Sandra Bullock). When he finds a key hidden in his father’s cupboard, in an envelope simply marked ‘Black’, Oskar treats this as another expedition and sets out to systematically visit every Black in the phonebook. Along the way he encounters hundreds of stories, including the one belonging to his grandmother’s mysterious tenant (Max Von Sydow).

Trying to makes sense of the 9/11 attacks through the eyes of a child is a bold approach, although considering the multitude of layers of meaning that have been added to the fateful date for adults, it is perhaps the most straightforward way to get a handle on the incomprehensible. Yet the vessel is just as important as the contents, and with Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close we have a lead who is almost as unfathomable as the events that inspired his story. Newcomer Thomas Horn does an admirable job with the material he has been given, but his character is so consciously written as quirky that it is difficult to pay attention to the message for sheer annoyance at the messenger.

Dealing with 9/11 was a big enough task without making the child so deliberately Asperger’s like, from his ‘genius’ plans to allegedly calming tambourine. Daldry tries for endearing, but when the just plain weird Oskar asks for kisses from strangers, it is cringing and not crying that you’ll be doing. Sustaining the Don Quixote quest (by way of The Fisher King) is a difficult task, especially when a weird kid is yelling at you for well over two hours. The appearance of Max Von Sydow promises to bring some gravitas, but as a completely mute character, this merely provides an excuse for the weird kid to yell some more. Oskar is not a bad kid, but rather grates because he is too perfect, dispensing homespun wisdom and Pollyanna virtues throughout the city like a tambourine carrying unicorn with rainbow exhaust.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close may think it is important, and there is little denying that all of the issues it deals with are worth exploring. At its core, the film is about dealing with grief, the relationships between a father and a son and the commonality of experience, and to the film’s credit, it eschews with the more obvious jingoistic nods and anthemic country music wisdom. Yet the film doesn’t find a thread of unity running through the stories of New York City, but instead creates one out of disparate pieces it has thrown together. The use of 9/11 doesn’t frame the story, but rather the film exploits the tragedy, using is a shorthand for sentimentality when all it has are cheap imitations of life and faux emotions copied from other similar narratives.

[stextbox id=”custom”]A forced set of emotions and a frankly annoying lead send mixed messages in what could have been a great commentary, but is instead extremely long and incredibly dull.[/stextbox]

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is released in Australia on 23 February 2012 from Roadshow Films.

February 21, 2012
Larry Crowne

Tom Hanks has worn many hats over the years, not least of which are the animated ones his doppelgänger Woody wore in the successful series of Toy Story films. Beginning his film career in comedy, early successes with Splash and Big, Hanks solidified his reputation as a comedic actor, although a string of flops (The ‘Burbs, Joe Versus the Volcano and The Bonfire of the Vanities) led Hanks to more dramatic performances. The move proved to be a winning one for Hanks, becoming only the second actor (following Spencer Tracey) to win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Since then, Hanks has balanced him comedic and dramatic roles more carefully, from major ensembles The Green Mile and Saving Private Ryan, one-man show Cast Away and major blockbusters such as The Da Vinci Code. With Larry Crowne, Hanks not only re-teams with Charlie Wilson’s War co-star Julia Roberts, but puts his director’s cap back on for the first time since 1996’s That Thing You Do.

Larry Crowne (Hanks) is a middle-aged Navy veteran who is fired from his job at a large retail store when the company decides that his lack of education hinders his chances of promotion. Broke and depressed, Larry takes the advice of his neighbour (Cedric the Entertainer, Madagascar) and sells off most of his possessions to enrol in college for the first time. Making friends with the college kids, Larry begins to fall for cynical educator Mercedes (Julia Roberts, Eat Pray Love).

Nothing about Larry Crowne makes sense. From the insensitive and baffling dismissal of Larry at the start of the film, to the juvenile antics at the community college, this is not a film born of this plane of reality. That Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Life in Ruins) is the co-writer on this brain spasm should have been the first clue that Larry Crowne was destined for a less than spectacular end-product. Yet the extent to which this film goes to prove its own stupidity is mind-blowing. Despite being set at a community college, and going to great lengths to remind us “this is not high school”, everything else about Larry Crowne follows the motifs of the troubled school dramas. Students are petulant and uninterested in the classes they are seemingly being “forced” into, teachers chastise students for being tardy or texting in class (a fact of everyday life in a tertiary institution) and lecture theatres seem to be custom built with permanent bronze signs for the academics. Are there only two classes being taught on the campus? We could just as easily put this all down to a piece of Hollywood fancy, from two people who have not walked the same ground as us mere mortals for quite some decades, were it not for the shocking characterisation of most of the principle cast.

Hanks and Roberts have been described as America’s sweethearts, but that brings with it a certain amount of saccharine that when overdone, can lead to diabetes and the potential for losing a foot. Hanks has turned in some terrific dramatic performances under Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Jonathan Demme, Frank Darabont, Sam Mendes and Ron Howard. Yet under the direction of himself, Hanks shows that his hapless persona can only take him so far under his own tutelage. Julia Roberts brings that role she plays to Mercedes the teacher, the same slightly bullying, loud-mouthed persona that has followed her since at least 1990’s Pretty Woman. How anybody puts up with Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Talia, a woman who snatches phones from Larry’s hands and rearranges his furniture on a whim, without firing her from a canon is baffling. Yet the most troubling aspect of Larry Crowne is that it comes from a very real place of people dealing with the after-effects of the global financial crisis, and a great film is yet to be made on the subject. It just shouldn’t be written, directed and starring a Hollywood A-Lister for whom the financial crisis is just another opportunity to ham the camera.

[stextbox id=”custom” caption=”The Reel Bits”]Larry Crowne is not only an unfunny mess of a film, it is incredibly out of touch with the audiences who deal with the issues in the film every day. Offensive in its ineffectualness, the only people who seem to have enjoyed this are the ones in front of the camera. [/stextbox]

[stextbox id=”grey”]USA | 98 minutes | Director: Tom Hanks | Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Cedric the Entertainer

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Larry Crowne was released on 21 July 2011 in Australia from Pinnacle.

July 25, 2011