Hanks Oscar Winning Role

Hollywood A-listers get together to depict life in college for older students ...

MANILA, Philippines -- Can a pair of Oscar Best Actor winners make “Larry Crowne” a winning film? We’re talking here of Tom Hanks, of “Forrest Gump” fame, and Julia Roberts, who won her Academy Award for “Erin Brockovich.” Of, course, Steven Soderbergh directed Julia’s winning role, for which he also won the Oscar for Best Director, and Robert Zemeckis likewise won the best helmsman statuette for directing Hanks in “Forrest Gump.”

In “Larry Crowne,” however, not only does Tom Hanks play the title role – he also co-writes, directs and produces the film. These are four tough core competencies and, to this reviewer, only Ben Affleck managed to pull it all off in “The Town,” a great film which featured great acting, great writing and great direction. Alas, Tom Hanks, acknowledged leader of Hollywood’s senior brat pack, is no Affleck. Under his direction, all Julia Roberts can do is grin and show the toothy smile which first captivated worldwide movie-going audiences in “Pretty Woman.”

“Larry Crowne” begins well enough with Larry trooping down to the office of the supermarket where he has worked for years, expecting to be named employee of the month. Instead, he’s fired because he does not have the college education and degree requisite of the work. Can you believe that?

Larry struggles to find the wherewithal with which to go to school, and he finally finds himself in a community college where, at age 54, he’s the oldest student. The teacher assigned to the class is Mercedes Tainot. Played by Julia Roberts, she patiently explains the right spelling and pronunciation of her name so it cannot be misconstrued as “tie-not” – do you get the pun?

Tainot proves to be an adept instructor. She teaches her students how to express themselves in public. In one exercise, she asks each one to explain to the class a personal skill. “Larry Crowne” is a comedy, mind you, so co-writers Hank and Nia Vardalos who wrote the mild hit “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” strive to create comic moments. You have Larry Crowne, for instance, explaining how to make supermarket-grade French toast, in English. Dressed in full Trekkie regalia, the requisite class nerd talks about “Star Trek,” and teacher Tainot mistakes his costume as something from “Star Wars,” whereupon the Trekkie “energizes.” By way of association, George Takei of the original “Star Trek” films plays Larry’s economics teacher. He catches our student using a mobile phone in class and declares: “They call them smart phones but only dummies use them in my class.

Tempest because of a teapot

I don’t know how long I’ll keep doing this, but let’s look at yesterday’s Learned League questions.

After writing about the need for intuition and creative thinking in solving trivia, Day 4 brought six questions where you either knew them or you didn’t. If there was a secret door into any of these questions, I sure as hell couldn’t find it.

1) Andrew Beckett, Chuck Noland, Josh Baskin, and Capt. John H. Miller are among the roles played by what Oscar-winning actor?