“Larry Crowne” Website Gives Students a Chance to Share Their Stories

“Larry Crowne” might not break box office records any time soon, but the movie is making a social statement of sorts by striking a familiar chord among those who’ve felt the effects of the recession. The film stars Tom Hanks as an adult who goes back to school after the company that he works for downsizes. Julia Roberts portrays his public speaking teacher.

Roberts and Hanks haven’t received as much attention as Megan Fox’s replacement in the most recent “Transformers” installment that debuted during the same weekend. In a Rotten Tomatoes website review, in fact, “Larry Crowne” itself earned a mere two stars and a 35 percent on the “tomatometer.” description of being “bland and conventional.”

Still, “Larry Crowne” comes near what is hopefully the end of a recession, a time when many out of work adults have contributed to record college and university enrollments. A growing number of “Larry Crowne” moviegoers apparently identify with the film enough that they’re sharing their stories of love, loss, work, renewal and hope on its website.

Blair Garbarino of Chattanooga, Tenn., is one of the inspired. Laid off from her job with a South Florida roofing company in 2009, Garbarino tells of how she moved to Georgia, enrolled in a technical school and embarked on a career as a licensed practical nurse. Where Sonia Avery of Illinois shares her fears about being the oldest student in class, unable to keep up with her younger classmates, grandmother Kimberly Embry, also of Illinois, reports that she attends the same school as her daughters – and boasts a 3.33 grade point average.

What moviegoers might find appealing in “Larry Crowne” as well is the character of Larry himself, a reviewer for the San Diego Tribune suggests. He describes Crowne as a “real person” who, despite being downtrodden at times, is “open to all things lively and good.

“We empathize in his wounded moments, and we rejoice in his elation,” Tribune reviewer John Rubio notes.

John Fox of Salt Lake City, Utah, describes “Larry Crowne” as a “movie for our time” – one that demonstrates how humbled people can become from what he refers to as “career meltdowns.”

“. . . I know that I too needed to learn some life lessons so that one day, humbled and hurt and yet bettered by the experience, I will better be able to console and comfort others with empathy, compassion and a humility that I did not have,” Fox writes.

He has since launched a new blog. In it, he refers to himself as the “Golden Rule Guy.”

*guest blog post by Michelle