I love Tom Hanks. I love his acting. I love his direction. I love the movies he writes.
Such is the case with Larry Crowne, a decidedly silly and heartwarming romance featuring Hanks’ Crowne returning to school and falling for Julia Roberts’ community college professor Mercedes Tainot.
Good work, Hanks: writing a romance with one of the most amazing movie stars in the world. Pretty smart.
The fun of the movie is found in the story, to be sure, but, for me, also found in the quirky, at the end of her rope Tainot who rediscovers in her love of Larry her love of teaching. Though her journey from tired, punch-the-clock lecturer to inspired, make-them-think professor is predictable, it is also an arc that I think many educators go through at various times of their careers, of a school year, of a school day!
The sweetness of the movie rests in Hanks’ Crowne but works in Roberts’ Tainot. It’s worth a watch!
We never know the influence we have… While culture tends to promulgate the “those who can, do, those who cannot, teach” idiocy, there are hundreds of examples of brilliance and impactful teachers in reality and in pop culture. Every-other-week this year, I will share my brief reflections on Smart People Doing Smart Things be they in literature, in film, in music or in real life. Many will be teachers, but not all. Many will be fictional, but some will be real. All will be inspiring. Welcome to IntelliPop!
