Larry Crowne

Why is it relevant?

Journey of self-discovery.  Starting Over.  Sudden life change and the challenges of coping with change.  Embracing change. 

 

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Remember that cozy, cotton-soft complacency of your life before separation and divorce?  Remember how you used to just get up and function, each day weaving into the next?  Following routines that just seemed to have knotted around you.  Probably not living up to your full potential but lazily carrying on with the easy, predictable warp and weft of being.  Even if your life was a bit rocky or turbulent or unsecure, you probably had just enough comfort to avoid untangeling the thousand and one threads that bound you together.  And then one day you woke up  and everything was unfamiliar, changed.  Much of what made you and defined you was suddenly ripped away and you were faced with the daunting task of creating a new pattern to sort out the tangeled mess that was left behind.

Tom Hanks plays the titular character, Larry Crowne, a divorced navy vet and small time manager in a small time discount shopping centre.  Many might find this life to be limiting, but Larry clearly finds joy and satisfaction in his work.  Larry gets called into a meeting with management one morning, believing that he's going to get yet another employee of the month honour.  Instead, he gets unceremoniously fired, all because he missed out on a college education.

This movie is an celebration of the transformative kick in the pants that many of us face in middle age.  It is especially relevant in today's world as thousands of 40-60 year olds suddenly find themselves unemployed, lacking the relevant skills to adapt to a changing and insecure job market, and increasing numbers are divorcing after years of what seemed like secure marriage and child-rearing.

Shut doors, especially for the post-50 crowd, might be cause for some people to give up.  But not our Larry Crowne.  His neighbour suggests that he go to school, a local community college, and Larry decides to give it a whirl.  Right off the bat he makes friendly with the school dean who recommends that he sign up for the three hardest courses in the school guaranteed to help him succeed in the world of business.  Larry faces financial insecurity, the challenge of pursuing a rudementary education and homelessness, but doesn't let it get him down. Despite expressing reluctance to take some backward steps both career and housing-wise, he manages to find happiness and security when he does so, allowing him to carry on with the business of beginning a new life.

The film's chipper protagonist and his bitter romantic foil are trapped in dead end lives.  A middle aged man whose lack of education means his employability comes to an end.  A woman rapidly approaching middle age whose MA in English and deadbeat husband leads to emotional unhappiness and dissatisfaction.  Every one of us will hit a certain time in our lives when we begin to question the decisions we made that got us to the point that we are in.  Even though the choices may have seemed like solid decisions at the time that we made them, in retrospect it often feels like we have dug ourselves in and there is just no possibility of moving forward.  It can be hard to fathom how many years we have invested in a life that was pret a porter instead of bespoke.  All the alterations we made and snaggled threads we endured to make a life that perhaps wasn't truly ours fit in just the right way.  We need to a live a little on the edge, invest in the quality of our lives, do things that stretch who we are.  There is only so much mending that can be done before it's time to replace the fabric all together.  The task requires removing ourselves from our comfort zone so that we can accept who we have become and embrace all the possibilities of who we can be.  

This movie is a great choice for anyone starting over again mid-life; anyone for whom life has suddenly and unexpectedly kicked to the curb, be it via divorce, downsizing, bankruptcy, homelessness, health crisis or all of the above.  It's a gentle, relatable comedy without too many outrageous flights of fancy; a genuine feel good, affirmative movie.  Walk away from this flick assured that it's okay to take a chance on life, on work, on fulfillment, on ourselves.

Relax.  Take your time to cut the pieces just right.  Design yourself from the bottom up.  Enjoy the process.   Sew yourself back together with love.

Favourite quotes:
  

"Sometimes it comes down to a good haircut."

"I told you how to avoid divorce lawyers.  You get married, and you stay married."

Healing Factor:

4 out of 5 Retro Scooters.

Larry Crowne, 2011. Directed by Tom Hanks.  Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wilmer Valderrama, Pam Grier.  Universal Films

For more info on the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1583420/?ref_=nv_sr_1