'Larry Crowne' Made Memorable With Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts

There was a time when you couldn’t go to the movies without seeing Tom Hanks – either in the main feature or highlighted in a coming attraction.  But in recent years, the beloved actor has begun to work more and more off camera, producing such hits as “Big Love” and “Mamma Mia,” as well as many other ... shall we say, unremarkable flicks (“My Life in Ruins,” we’re looking at you.)

Now Hanks is back in full force – not only producing, but writing, directing and starring in “Larry Crowne.” So if you don’t like it, you know whom to blame. (Ha.)

Hanks’ film is centered around a Joe-Six-pack-type guy, a 20-year Navy cook turned big box store worker who is laid off because he never went to college. It’s a chord that strikes familiar with many of us, particularly in this economy.

After some floundering, Larry ditches his SUV for a retro blue scooter and enrolls in his first semester at community college. In the scooter pit, he meets Talia, an exotic, free spirit who inducts Larry – whom she dubs “Lance” – into her gang of scooter-riding hipsters and breathes new verve into his predictable routine.

As the screenwriter, along with co-writer Nia Vardalos, Hanks chooses to focus on that transformation and rebirth, more so than the relationship between Larry and his crush, professor Mercedes Tainot, which leaves the love story feeling underdeveloped and unsatisfying.

Then again, it's Hanks’ onscreen charm and light-hearted direction that elevate the film from entirely forgettable to mildly entertaining. So we can’t be too mad at him.

A lot of credit must also go to another industry titan: Julia Roberts. In the film, Roberts plays a brooding community college professor named Mercy. Mercy is frustrated by life. She has a slacker, porn-addicted husband, less than scholarly students and a drive that has all but disappeared. The role required more grimacing than we’re used to seeing from Roberts, but that was kind of nice. Her character is relatable, and that went a long way in a film that felt heavy on whimsy.

All in all “Larry Crowne” is less than the sum of its parts, but at least its parts are charming.

Catch it at Saturday at the  at 11:10 a.m., 1:50 p.m., 4:40 p.m., 7:10 p.m., 9:50 p.m.