In
the motion picture, Larry Crowne, we are treated to a man who enjoys and
cherishes his days as a lowly cart pusher at a Target-esque store. Here we come
to learn that not only does he enjoy middling work as a “team leader”, but that
he gets paid very well for doing it (he owns a nice Southern California house
and drives an SUV). After an implausible meeting occurs, where Larry is fired
because he cannot be promoted, even though he is clearly the best and most
competent employee at the store, he enrolls at a local community college in
order to make himself marketable again. There, Larry experiences a reawakening
that only individuals too hypnotized by corporate culture would experience.
The
film begins to show some delusional notions here, delving into Larry’s easy
ride through school. He appears to be the only older person at the school (which
is simply not true at a community college in Southern California) and seems to
be the only member of his friends to actually be affected by the recession (everyone
else: his neighbor, the fellow students- seem to exist in a fictional world
outside of the recession). With this in mind- his immediate classmate, who has
no college diploma, opens a boutique in a rundown neighborhood and it is an
immediate success. This sub-plot negates the entire message of the film: the
greater necessity of education. It also establishes a subversive message about
education, race and class. The character who opens up the boutique is a woman
of color- her denying education as a necessary pre-requisite for the market
place allows her to subvert the society that education serves. She denies the
need for an education in a society that is created for normative conceptions of
success and advancement. By denying this she denies these normative conceptions
while also denying the racial notions behind them (white normativity and
privilege).
This
subversive point is not without merit, since her mentor in the film is played
by Pam Grier. Grier (as everyone should remember) was the most subversive
actress of the 1970’s. Her films embodied a subversive edge, refusing to both
conform to white norms and allowing limitations of a physical and
socio-economic ghetto to control her. Her character serves as a mentor to the
boutique character, inspiring her to follow through and open the boutique. This
crucial element illustrates a subversive tension throughout the film, showing
that these characters exist in contrast to the main characters.
Larry
Crowne exists as an embodiment of white mediocrity conforming to normative
conceptions and continued hope that things will simply work out (with no acknowledgment
of his white privilege). These characters (Grier and boutique girl) instead
represent those who have had opportunities historically and institutionally denied
to them (Julia Roberts even illustrates this point when she gives Larry an A,
just because he is the only white male in the entire class-despite the fact he
incorrectly did his final assignment), therefore they have to subvert normative
conceptions in order to combat this denial. While I doubt that this was
intentional on the part of the filmmakers (Tom Hanks again), it creeps out as a
subversive tension within the film that refocuses its’ central message.
-Mark Brinton
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