Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) has been fired by a corporation where he has worked for years.
He has not graduated from college and is told that this is the reason he has been let go despite a stellar employment record. The truth is that the corporation is downsizing.
Now without his paycheck, the bank is foreclosing on his home.
I wanted to care about this film because in 1987, like Larry Crowne, I lost all of my possessions and my apartment -- but not due to foreclosure. Uninsured, I was burned out of my home.
The fire was rumored to be a torch in which the landlord had arsoned his building and collected on all of my property. He knew I would be out of town.
My neighbor who worked for him had a key. The fire began in my apartment. I had an art collection, and had invested my savings from lucrative modeling days into designer furniture that was water soaked and stored for six years in the Valley while I futilely fought my landlord, unable to let go.
After the fire I relocated in New York and bought all new possessions; however, letting go of the loss was another matter. I threw myself into my journalism with a flurry.
Then several years later when the bogus case was settled after a judge who was a friend of the landlord recused himself, the storage company released what was left of my possessions. Like Larry Crowne, I had a garage sale in the Valley.
When I saw Larry Crowne smiling during the garage sale of his possessions, I recalled this six-year period in which I suffered from an inability to let go. People, wise people, had told me to walk away. Larry Crowne’s ability to do this in the film was the best message I got from seeing this film -- and this gave me a reason for having seen it. A very selfish, self-centered reason, but at least it gave the film a special meaning for me.
Maybe the loss I experienced is similar to losing a home in foreclosure. I don’t know. I’ve never owned a house. I do know material loss is just that. Time healed my pain, but Larry Crowne’s pain was healed by his accepting his powerlessness.
What did Larry do? He enrolled in a local community college, the Vassar of the Valley, to educate himself about finance to protect himself from the impending foreclosure. He also took a course in speech to help defend himself from being and feeling like a victim of the banks.
Enter Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts) who becomes his speech teacher. Tainot is unhappily married to a Dean Tainot (Bryan Cranston) who is obsessed with internet porn and Broad Busters XXX.
"I'm working all day and you're looking at porn." Tainot says to her husband.
"I'm a guy being a guy. That's all. Are you looking for a whole different kind of man?"
"I work," Tainot says.
