LOVE AT LARGE. Directed and written by Alan Rudolph, produced by David Blocker for Orion. Starring Tom Berenger, Elizabeth Perkins and Anne Archer. Rated R.
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Love at Large is a rambling, stylish dissertation on human frailty, subdivision: romantic entanglements. It's also a gentle and quite humorous satire on detective movies.
Director Rudolph has a reputation for making quirky, interesting, off-beat movies. And the leisurely pace and seemingly aimless plot of this one will make it appeal more to "art" than mainstream movie fans. See it if you like movies with a distinctly different way of looking at the world.
The versatile Berenger plays Harry, a private eye who's a little seedy, a little clumsy and not too bright. Mystery woman Miss Dolan (Archer) gives him a lot of money up front to tail an even more mysterious "Rick." But her description isn't too exact, and, sure enough, Harry takes off after the wrong guy.
In the slightly tilted world of Love at Large, though, it's reasonable to assume that even the wrong guy might prove to be pretty interesting, which of course he does. Another layer of complication is added when we realize someone's following Harry, too.
This turns out to be Stella (Perkins), a novice private eye with more enthusiasm than technique. Harry and Stella end up providing the romantic focus of this movie. And the pairing is agreeable. They're attractive and appealing, but just rough enough around the edges to spark real interest.
Archer is almost too weird as the spacy Miss Dolan, but the rest of the rather large cast also provides glimpses of love-related craziness. Ann Magnuson, for example, throws things a lot; Neil Young (yes, the rock star; but I bet it takes more than one scene to spot him) may or may not be a murderer; Ted Levine is a bigamist, etc.
Nothing gets too kinky, though. In fact, Love at Large is pretty tame for its R rating. There are a lot of sexual references and steamy looks and clutches, but nothing too graphic or exposed.
April 4, 1990