The movie, Larry Crowne, is a good example of our current economy. The main character, Tom Hanks, works at U-Mart and is such a good employee that he has received the “Employee of the Month” award for the last nine months. This month, however, when he is called before the managers, they tell him he can advance no higher because he never went to college and they fire him.
Devastated, he visits his neighbor who tells him that since he was fired because of a lack of education to go to college. He is older than the average college student because he joined the Navy right out of college and served his country for nearly 20 years, but he visits the local community college and registers for the next term. As he is putting fuel in his blazer one day, he notices a guy with a moped in the next lane. While his fuel bill is over $70, the moped guy’s bill is only about $3. So he buys a moped from his neighbor who operates an on-going yard sale in from of his house. Not being able to afford his house payment, he tells the bank to foreclose on his house. All this downsizing is so prevalent in our society that most of the population watching this movie will be able to relate to the feelings and trials Larry is experiencing. While in school, he hooks up with one of his professors (Julia Roberts). This woman changes his life.
With the seven Cs of good communication in mind, this movie has about half of them right. It is not complete because Larry does not end up with another job. As to consideration and correctness, the movie is right on target as to our times about the price of fuel and the foreclosing of homes. More and more people are going back to college to finish a degree and hope for a better job. Clarity did not get points since I could not tell whether the movie was suppose to be a comedy, love story or educational film. It alluded to all three but was not complete. Conciseness struck out as well. I would give this movie 3 stars.
