Essentially, Nia’s “jocular that goes for the jugular” approach is in full force here. The movie is riddled with happy people being happy in a happy world of happiness. Even the unhappy people are happy! Now, if that’s the kind of romantic comedy you’re looking for (and I hesitate at calling this a “rom-com,” as the romantic aspects of the movie are kept to the barest of bare minimums), you’re motor-scooter has come in. If you’re looking for some meat with this cheese, however, you’ll probably end up wondering why Tom Hanks didn’t opt for a change of pace by not adding this to his résumé altogether.
Universal’s release of Larry Crowne is much like the movie itself: pleasing, but none too substantial. The video aspect of this 1080p presentation (which preserves the film’s 2.40:1 ratio) is rather solid, but ultimately fails to make an impression that leans towards the “Good” or “Bad” side of the meter. It’s middle-of-the-road, kids. The sound is slightly better, with there being more subtle nuances contained in the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack than you’d expect there to be in a run-of-the-mill [romantic] comedy as this. Optional subtitles are provided in English (SDH), Spanish, and French.
A handful of special features accompany this release, and include a couple of deleted scenes, a featurette (which seems more like Electronic Press Kit material), and a behind-the-scenes look at filming. Pretty bland stuff, really.
But then, some will say the exact same thing of the entire movie. Personally, I think it could have been a lot worse: it could have been a solo Nia Vardalos flick, for example. Oh, the unimaginable horror!
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