Love at Large

R

1990

1h 37m

Romance

Comedy

List

78%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

44%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Inept private investigator Harry Dobbs (Tom Berenger) meets new client Miss Dolan (Anne Archer), who wants him to follow her abusive lover. But Harry sets about tailing a different person entirely -- a mysterious character leading a double life (Ted Levine). Harry, however, discovers that he himself is being followed by distaff gumshoe Stella Wynkowski (Elizabeth Perkins). Eventually the two team up in hopes that together they can get to the bottom of this imbroglio.

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Steve D

The tone didn't work at all for me.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

09/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This film go largely poor reviews, but for whatever reason the films of director Alan Rudolph always get me. A lot of his films seem to exist in their own universe. The noir elements of this film and "Trouble in Mind" feel quite similar, but even his films like "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" or "Choose Me" seem to exist on their own plane of reality. Tom Berenger plays a hard-boiled private investigator hired by Anna Archer to tail her shady boyfriend, which leads to a Raymond Chandler-esque serpentine mystery. Add in a competing P.I. in the form of equally tough-as-nails Elizabeth Perkins and you have an interesting love triangle of sorts between the three leads. What makes "Love at Large" memorable is writer/director Alan Rudolph and the unique style he brought to an oddball series of films he made in the 80s and early 90s, which seemed to exist somewhat out of time ("Trouble in Mind" "The Moderns" "Mrs. Parks and the Vicious Circle" and this film). These films were throwbacks to another time, but incorporated 80s/90s pastels and neon color palettes, along with modern sensibilities to the characters and situations. Composer Mark Isham's score also nicely balances a score that feels period yet also contemporary. Although the "Love at Large" meanders and is slow at times, the cast, which also includes Ted Levine, Kate Capshaw, Ruby Dee, Kevin J. O'Connor, Annette O'Toole, Anne Magnuson, and Neil Young, and Rudolph's visual style make the film well worth watching for fans of old school noir and 80's indie flicks. FUN FACT! "Love at Large" was filmed primarily in Portland, Oregon.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Private eye investigates mysterious woman's cheating husband and uncovers something much deeper in this underrated and overlooked suspense yarn.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

(** 1/2): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img]

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Although nothing else in the film rang any bells, the introductory shot of Neil Young (yep, that Neil Young, and in a non-musical role, no less) looked VERY familiar, and throughout the movie I kept wondering if I'd seen this before and forgotten about it. An eccentric little take-off on noir, too understated to be parody but too irreverent to be straight homage, this nonetheless existed quite comfortably in its own little tonal world. Initially, it looked as though we were being set up for a trite comedy of errors and while that aspect was present, it was mostly in the background and easily forgotten. Might be the second funniest use of the query, "What?!" in cinema.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

i just love this movie

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

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Alan Rudolph

Director

Tom Berenger

Harry Dobbs

Elizabeth Perkins

Stella Wynkowski

Anne Archer

Miss Dolan

Ted Levine

Frederick King

Annette O'Toole

Mrs. King

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: B-

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Here is a movie that looks like a parody, sounds like a parody and plays like a parody, but isn't a parody -- because the genre it's making fun of doesn't exist.

Rated: 1/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: B-

Mar 9, 1990

Full Review

Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

The production design, the costume, the music... launches Love at Large into that prohibited planet where Rudolph's films happen. [Full review in Spanish]

Oct 28, 2022

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Deliberately strange, to the degree where Love at Large refreshingly defies easy categorization, Rudolph's bizarre universe feels innovative even as it leads to an expected finale.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 20, 2020

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Jul 4, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

Inept private investigator Harry Dobbs (Tom Berenger) meets new client Miss Dolan (Anne Archer), who wants him to follow her abusive lover. But Harry sets about tailing a different person entirely -- a mysterious character leading a double life (Ted Levine). Harry, however, discovers that he himself is being followed by distaff gumshoe Stella Wynkowski (Elizabeth Perkins). Eventually the two team up in hopes that together they can get to the bottom of this imbroglio.

Director: Alan Rudolph
Screenwriter: Alan Rudolph
Rating: R
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 3, 2021
Box Office (Gross USA): $708.6K
Runtime: 1h 37m
Sound Mix: Surround