Larry Crowne and... Mercy Tainot. This pair's attitude is not addressed to the third or middle-aged prone to, from now on, allow themselves all that had been spared before. The magic is meant to work witn the not-so-young ones facing the long and winding USA crisis.
Facing crisis?
They look extremely happy on just a scooter! But attention: there are no kids, they are, respectively, single and divorced; last but still not least, they are white.
And it is a Hollywood movie.
Each sentence is there with a fairly clear purpose, such as the statement made by Larry's black neighbor, 'If you're single and white, you can always start in America.'
A cliché, no doubt. And the thing is not done with just this single one. The movie whose title is the name of Tom Hanks's character hurts us with a vast collection of déjà vu. Still, there emerges a broader idea that had been pretty unseen elsewhere: you must learn how to go through financial hardship in a much better attitude than ever before.
As the New York Times today highlights the gloomy remark of a Harvard economics professor, we are invited, by the movie directed by the very Hanks, to rethink America differently, abandoning the automatic link to prosperity, prosperity, prosperity.
That very neighbor also leads the conversation to a different perspective as Larry regrets to move out the nice house where he thought he would see his kids grow up: 'Your destiny is taking you elsewhere'. This idea of destiny interference is commonplace in Brazil. But as far as America is concerned, it is received as a big surprise.
Larry loses his job, his house but... finds love. This plot would hardly draw anyone to the movies, especially in tough times. Along with such silliness, however, we are offered top stars under a movie title that gives us no clue about the actual point of the scenes.
Larry Crowne, once the movie is digested, should become an icon. In Brazil that is bound to fail. The distortions have begun with changes to the title in order to adjust the whole idea to people that cannot see any crisis or reason to change their behavor - added to 'Larry Crowne', there comes 'o amor está de volta', that is, love is back.
As an icon, Larry Crowne is as weird as Forest Gump, no matter the country of the audience. Larry rides slower than a cat, since he 'has never taken anyone [with him on the scooter] before' and wants to ensure nothing goes wrong. He kisses his teacher (Mercy-Julia Roberts) but does not brag about, and even keeps that a secret. He peacefully shakes hands with the aggressive guy who threatens him for his links with Talia, the aggressor's girlfriend. He reads the course material and misses parties to study for finals. He allows strangers to change everything around his house (while he still has it) and then rejoices about the feng-shui results. At last - and I bet nobody notices that - he picks up things thrown on the floor (as garbage) and puts them in the right bins to be recycled. Not much? Brazilians, for sure, are not touched the least by all those supposed-to-be subliminal messages.
(to be cont)
