CHEMISTRY 101: LOVE AT LARGE, WHITE PALACE
It's been said many times before, so I'll just sum it up here. One of the most mysterious qualities of romantic movies is the chemistry between the two people who are supposed to be in love. If the two stars click, you've got a winner; if they don't, you've got a clinker. Of course, chemistry isn't the only thing those movies need - it still needs to be a good movie as well - but chemistry will certainly help make it a good movie, or make a good movie better.
Sometimes, a writer and/or director can just create the right romantic mood, and chemistry will follow. That's the case with Alan Rudolph's LOVE AT LARGE. Rudolph is generally known anyway for making somewhat off-kilter movies which concentrate on creating a romantic mood (a former colleague once described Rudolph movies as what would happen if Bogie took a wrong turn and wound up in an Astaire movie), and LOVE AT LARGE is a pretty good example.
The story follows Harry (Tom Berenger), a private eye who's down on his luck, and who has to deal with his insanely jealous girlfriend Doris (Ann Magnuson). One night, he gets called on a case by a mysterious woman named Miss Dolan (Anne Archer). She wants him to follow the man she's seeing, so she'll know where he is at all times, because she as well is jealous, or lovesick. Harry thinks it's a dubious proposition, but he's smitten with her, and she's willing to pay, so he sets out. The man he's following, Frederick King (Ted Levine), turns out to be married to a housewife (Annette O'Toole) who refuses to believe anything bad about him. So it's probably good she doesn't know Frederick is also married to another woman, Ellen (Kate Capshaw), and living under the name of James McGraw (as Frederick, he lives in a suburb, while as James, he lives on a ranch).
But there's much more to the story. It turns out Harry has been following the wrong guy (Miss Dolan wanted him to follow a man named Rick (Neil Young), and Harry assumed Rick was short for Frederick). Also, Ellen, bored with waiting for James/Frederick all the time, has been fooling around with Art (Kevin J. O'Connor), a farmhand. Finally, Harry is also being followed by Stella (Elizabeth Perkins), a detective Doris hired because she assumed Harry was cheating on her. When Harry discovers what Stella is doing, she suggests they pair up in following James/Frederick. Harry turns her down at first, but then he falls in love with her.
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