Love at Large

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1990, 97 min
Section: Forum of Independents - Tribute to Alan Rudolph

Synopsis

In Alan Rudolph’s most personal projects, his quirky characters search for love in all of its elusive and illusory glory, continually seeking to rearrange their romantic destiny via illogical but irresistible liaisons. Love at Large is Rudolph’s most single-minded and beguiling riff on this theme, and the one his pal novelist Tom Robbins likes best. As Leonard Cohen growls "Ain’t No Cure For Love” under the opening credits, Rudolph brings a tongue-in-cheek romanticism to the hard-boiled detective genre. Tom Berenger plays gravel-voiced Harry Dobbs, a gruff and rumpled private eye plagued with personal and financial problems. Things begin to pick up when nightclub chanteuse Miss Dolan (Anne Archer) hires him to follow her mysterious lover and find out if he is married. But bumbling Harry begins to trail the wrong guy (Ted Levine) – a man who is not only married, but has two separate families. Meanwhile, Harry discovers that he’s being followed by the feisty Stella (Elizabeth Perkins), a detective wannabe hired by Harry’s jealous girlfriend (performance artist Ann Magnuson). As always, mood takes precedence over plot, and Rudolph builds a mock-glamorous, pulp fiction ambience with Forties-style costumes and Mark Isham’s sexy score. With Kate Capshaw, Kevin J. O’Connor and Neil Young.