User reviews

One has to admire an actor like Arliss Howard for his courage in bringing this film to the screen. It is a painful story to watch, but it has its own rewards. The movie played locally only for a very short time, and sadly, it disappeared until it was shown recently on cable, for which we are grateful.

Perhaps with another director, some of the kinks in the film would have been ironed out. There are scenes that are just too painful to watch. Our hearts go out to Barlow and what he is going through at this time of his life. His writing is brilliant, but most everyone he submits his novels to, end up rejecting them. Barlow cannot take another defeat in his life.

To make matters worse, his divorce from Marilyn is driving him insane. We often wonder how these two unmatched pair thought they were going to make it at all. In bad marriages, both parties remain bitter over every little detail dictated by the court when they must separate.

Arliss Howard, as Barlow gives a heart felt performance. We see him sinking lower and lower without a safety net to hold him. Unfortunately, Debra Winger's time on screen is very short. Ms Winger makes this woman an enigma since we don't really know where her head is at. The other actors are good. Paul Le Mat, Rosanna Arquette and above all, a short, but very excellent turn by Angie Dickinson, make us care about the fate of these people.

Marks the return of Debra Winger to our video stores if not the big screen. For those who wondered, she is still a wonderful actress and is surrounded by a fine cast here. But this is basically the pretty boring story of an unpublished writer whose skills fail to equal his vocabulary which reeks of the platitudes and 'truisms' he decries.

Arliss Howard plays the writer, Barlow, and his drinking bouts with his Vietnam War buddy, Monroe, Paul LeMat, are well handled and sufficiently depressing to attract 'artsie' viewers. The subsequent tragic events in the actual plot are universal enough to hold our attention while we hope that something major will be said. But alas, nothing is and we are left with nothing but a empty story with good acting.

It is a shame that these notably good artists haven't found anything better to do. Special kudos though to Angie Dickinson who plays a role that no one had ever envisioned for her and does quite nicely.

Well at least in that respect the film is authentic. An all around not terrible film, with vignettes into lyrical prose and surreal flashes into Barlow's imagination. The film is also accompanied by a pleasing soundtrack.

Arliss Howard acts and directs in "Big Bad Love" which he co-produced with his wife, Debra Winger. Ms. Winger returns to the screen as the former spouse of Howard. She delivers a performance that made me regret her hiatus away from the set. From a starting point as a more or less typical divorced mother with kids she develops her character into a wrenching portrait of both strength and vulnerability.

In a series of illusions, hallucinations and surreal flashbacks, wounded Vietnam vet Leon (Howard) devotes his life to three endeavors: fiction writing, drinking and attempting, through the fog of alcohol, to be a dad to his little boy and girl. His rejection notices are so many that even after wallpapering a room with them he needs a fifty-five gallon oil drum next to his desk to hold the rest. Voiceovers read the letters which contain just about every cliche from the canon of editorial rejection imaginable.

Leon seems to be welded to beer cans - except when he hits the hooch for a change. I don't think anyone writes coherently when he's three sheets to the wind but this guy can.

As a dad he is both devoted and distracted, the often exasperating but permanent part of many a divorced mom's life.

The setting is a rural part of Mississippi that some reviewers have described as beautiful but which I found desolate and depressing (but that's my Gotham viewpoint, no insult intended to the locals portrayed in this film).

Arliss's character, Leon, has a strong friendship with Monroe, a buddy from combat. Unfortunately the lubricant for their relationship inevitably leads to big time trouble. Without excess sentimentality, the two friends navigate a small world that presents minor pleasures and real disappointments. The friendship is deep and real but with a touch of middle-aged regression to adolescence.

The acting here is as strong as the Mississippi drawl. There is little predicability beyond the reality that NOTHING will stop Arliss from writing and sending his many, many manuscripts off to faceless editors, apparently all or mostly in New York.

This film needs a strong word-of-mouth boost to get the audiences it deserves and it'll probably mostly be seen on VHS and DVD. Howard's and Winger's strong and affecting acting offer, I hope, promises for a renewed future for both in film.

This is a truly awful film. I could not finish it, but if i had I am sure i would have rated it a 1, rather than two. It is unbelievably pretentious and pointless. There is not much to say, really except this movie stinks. I have no problem with art films (I am an artist), but this was a wannabe art flick of the worst type: more a joke about student films than a real movie. There are random, unexplained clowns strewn about the film like cameos in The Player. Really- random clowns? If that is the only way the director/writer/whoever can express emotional confusion or disaffection or whaterver other crock of crap they are supposed to be a metaphor of, he needs to throw in the towel. It is an insult to your intelligence.

Rest in peace Larry Brown. It's so bizarre. I was just re-watching one of my favorite movies of all time last night (Big Bad Love). Larry Brown wrote the book, and he also has a small part as Barlow's father in the film.

Then I read on-line that Larry died today of a heart attack (11/24/04). That is very strange. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, watch the movie "Big Bad Love" (see my review in an earlier listing 4/21/03). I found the story, acting and music to be some of the most moving material I've ever experienced. Don't worry, there are plenty of laughs too. If this flick doesn't draw some emotion from you, you better check for a pulse.

Also get the soundtrack CD. It has some of the coolest blues that you'll ever hear. It features several artists from the North Mississippi Hill Country region, where the movie was filmed. R.L. Burnside and Kenny Brown even have cameo appearances. It's some big bad music.

Crawlin' Kingsnake

Austin, TX

Some other reviewers comment positively about this film. I will not mince words. I can't stoop so low. I have to tell the truth about it. This film was a total waste of my time from beginning until the end.

Others write that this film is Surreal. Yes it is. They accurately report about the actors and the sadness of much of the story, the drunken writer, his continuing battles with his ex-wife, his deadbeat best friend.

Where these other writers fall short is their failure to mention that the story line and the director develop no connection between the audience and the characters. No sympathy. All these characters are just pitiful people, failures on different levels but all failures. Just bums. Gritty, yes. Believable, no. They say it is painful, yes. But then they falsely claim there are rewards. There are none. One writer admits that it is uneven. Understatement. There are creative "dreams" or day dreams, but they do more to interrupt the flow of the movie, than promote it. The day dreams are the best part, so it may be more accurate to say the movie interrupts the flow of the dream sequences.

There is nothing wonderful about this movie. Don't waste your time. If it comes in your TV guide, turn on a different channel, any channel. Or turn the set off.

This essentially comic movie tells a suitably disjointed story of the crazed writing life in the South. All the players -- Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, the underrated Paul Le Mat, Rosanna Arquette, and Angie Dickinson -- are excellent. Instead of spoonfeeding us, the movie lets us discover the characters' past lives and motivations. It contains grand images: someone's novel scattered in a giant patch of kudzu; a painting in progress on the side of a rusted railroad car. Some people will like it just for the music, including by Tom Waits.

Big Bad Love achieves what few films even strive for -- that gritty level of believability (laced with wonderful dream sequences throughout) that makes it seem as though the camera was simply dropped into the center of these characters' lives.

There are a number of wonderful lines, and few scenes funnier than when unsuccessful writer, Leon Barlow (played by Howard), sits down to type a response to a letter from a magazine editor, rejecting one of his short stories.

Not to say that the film isn't uneven at times. Howard (who not only stars in the film, but also directs), remains true to his narrative, which does become difficult to watch as Barlow becomes more self-destructive. The dream sequences become muddled after a while, but only because that's how Barlow is experiencing them.

Performances by Paul Le Mat, Debra Winger, Angie Dickinson, and Rosanna Arquette are all very strong. The soundtrack is top-notch.

I highly recommend this film, particularly as an anti-dote to the vapid doggerel Hollywood continues to churn out like link sausages.

Emotionally on the run from a family tragedy which ruined his marriage, a Mississippi writer--struggling with his new novel--is locked in limbo between the past and the present. Star Arliss Howard, pulling a Rip Torn, also directed and co-adapted the screenplay with James Howard, based upon stories by Larry Brown (which play out here like diluted Henry Miller). Arliss Howard has obviously seen a lot of movies and knows a lot of tricks; his flights-of-fancy have touches of Fellini and Kubrick, yet his lead performance isn't the least bit convincing. As a result, the picture, a labor of love for Howard and real-life spouse Debra Winger (also a producer and co-star), contains all the ingredients for an arty hothouse flower but none of the punch. "Big Bad Love" is an unconventional film which certainly gave employment to many underused actors, yet it doesn't even attempt to entertain us with ironic or wistful images...it's too preoccupied with being Art. ** from ****

Part warm comedy, part bleak tragedy, part hallucinatory vision, this film paints an irresistible and touchingly human portrait of a Southern writer's life and it's milieu. Rural and small-town scenes and characters are rendered with loving attention to detail and respect for the rich eccentricities and quirky oddities of the main character and his family, friends and townsfolk. Every role brilliantly acted, every scene beautifully photographed, and as an added bonus the author's first-person narrative voice-over comes chock-full of fascinating samples of original poetry and poetic prose.

Produced by Debra Winger, who also plays a major speaking role, written and directed by Arliss Howard, who also plays the lead character, their love for this story and these characters literally oozes from each frame, each word of dialog, each piece of soundtrack music. Anyone who finds inspiration in wild free-form poetry will fall in love with this film. It made me laugh out loud, sob till I had to grab a tissue, and think to myself as the credits rolled, "THIS is what film-making is all about!" If your taste runs towards literate, character-centered stories and you are not put off by surrealist visuals and poetry, I urge you to SEE THIS FILM!

Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap. Truly refreshing storytelling. Maybe not for everyone, but not intended to be. Extraordinary! Powerful frayed-wire motivations propel this film through starkly beautiful, accessible scenes. A story of rejection and redemption, family and friendship. Director Arliss Howard stars as a man tripped up by life but struggling to get back on his feet, re-assimilate and rise above his troubles. Howard's wife, Debra Winger also stars.

A surreal movie based on a short story collection by Mississippi writer Larry Brown. Arliss Howard directs and stars as Leon Barlow, a drunken writer who struggles with the demands of his ex-wife (Debra Winger), his children and his best friend (Paul LeMat). He is a failure on almost every level – certainly personally and professionally – and Howard doesn't shy away from his protagonist's shortcomings. The resulting film is a meandering look at the creative process, and how one man messed up his life. It's a well crafted directorial debut from Howard who handles this quiet tale of an artist's redemption with a firm hand.

I enjoyed this movie, not for what Howard and Winger left in from the original literary fiction of Larry Brown, but for what they brought to the story. Winger and Howard are big fans of Brown and the adaptation is brilliant in sections. If this film put you to sleep, it's because you were never awake.

The film version of Big Bad Love is based not on the entire collection of short stories in the book of the same title, but only on the novella that ends the collection titled 92 Days. It follows the exploits of an aspiring writer named Leon Barlow and the people that surround him for a period of ninety two days. And the screenwriter/director Arliss Howard chose to interpret the world of Barlow by presenting portions of the original fiction through the use of non-Diegetic sound. The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening. Certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are represented as coming from outside the space of the story events. Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from a source within the films world. That is, sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film include voices of characters, sounds made by objects in the story and music represented as coming from instruments in the story space. Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from a source outside story space. Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action such as narrator's commentary, sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect and mood music. A film with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity or to surprise the audience. This allows the writer/director to present the real world of the writer and what occurs in his mind as simultaneous events.

The particular scene in the movie Big Bad Love is called "Rejection Letter Blues" and involves Barlow arriving home from a long day of work painting houses and reading the multiple rejection letters for his novel. Barlow drinks as he does this and the audience hears the voices in Barlow's head reading the rejection letters. The voices are initially in English, but quickly move to Spanish to French to Arabic and so many languages finally overlapping, including cats and dogs, that the audience is given the impression that not only does Barlow believe the publishing world is against him, but the entire world, including animals, dislikes his work.

To add to the sense that all are against Barlow, the writer/director has created an imagined negative commentary about Barlow from a radio DJ and within a blues song, in which the lyrics convey a rejection letter to Barlow. Barlow furiously types an angry response, viscerally shouting out some of the words that he is typing. The DJ's commentary attacks Barlow's writing as unread and refers to him as a deadbeat, living in a s***box home. This non-diegetic use of sound in the filmic space allows the writer/director to convey in a short period of film what the author of the original literature spent a great majority of the story to convey: Barlow is alone against the world. The final shot of the scene presents Barlow jumping into a trashcan, casting himself as a piece of discarded trash.

The literary version, structured as a first person narrative, relies less on the fact that Barlow is drinking while reading the rejection letters and more on the verbiage of the rejection letter and the reply letter that Barlow writes. The passage sums with the description of Barlow writing through the night and how after finishing his story, addressing and stamping a manila envelope, Barlow walks the envelope to the mailbox and reflects that, "I was knocking, had been knocking for years, but it was taking a long time for them to let me in. I went back inside, turned off the lights, and went to bed. Alone" (Brown 144). Both versions use different techniques to achieve the same goal of isolating Barlow from the world.

Where do I begin? This movie totally caught me off guard. It is so obvious to me that Arliss Howard must have spent years putting this together. He should find himself UP for the big 3 awards - Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.

I'm not sure if everyone will be able to relate to the main character who is a writer with a very overactive imagination. He is lower class and a bit of a redneck and has a drinking problem. Instead of being overly dramatic (like Tender Mercies or Leaving Las Vegas), I feel that his situation is portrayed a lot more realistically.

The presentation of his imagination mixed with real life moved me.

Big bad love is a truly beautiful movie. Arliss Howard has done what I have been eagerly expecting for a long lime,i.e. portrayed a tormented human being without the typical Hollywood string-quartet having to tell you when to feel something. The acting itself along with the perfect script and footage render this film a credibility and sincerity seldom found in American movies. Thanks Howard Arliss!

If you have been a fan of Arliss Howard through all those mediocre roles, through all the small glimpses of brilliance that he NEVER fails to show....well your patience has been rewarded. In 'Big Bad Love', Mr. Howard finally gets his chance to shine. He directs, he writes and most of all, he shows what a excellent actor he can be if given the proper role. This movie is a bit Streetcar Named Desire, a little Rocky with just a touch of Fellinnized Tender Mercies thrown in just to keep you confused. Like Tender Mercies, this movie is a quiet tale of an artist's redemption but instead of having to endure Betty Buckley, we get the added bonus of Debra Winger's triumphant return to the big screen. Go see....pay full price.

I loved the "writer genre". "Take the Highway Son." I found this film sad and depressing and LOVED it anyway. The character of Leon Barlow is extremely well drawn out. His deep love for his ex-wife and writing always seemed out of reach, yet, in the end there is hope as he finally finds success in getting published and then -- who knows! The boxcar HAD to roll off at the end! It was a metaphor for the load of false "JUNK" that had blocked his success. He had worked the Monmouth monument of boxed up pain over and over trying to make it "normal." Eventually the time came for it to move on and roll away. At last he blooms! Joni Grawe, Pawnee, IL

During the entire decade of the 1980's and toward the early 1990's,Debra Winger was one of the hottest actresses working in Hollywood at the time and she had a beau of leading actors that took her to the title of the box office queen. Some of her leading men were John Travolta,Richard Gere,Marlon Brando,and Jack Nicholson as well as with actors Robert Duvall and Ed Harris. However,she would win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1983 for "Terms of Endearment",and after that she went in submission for a while.......only to resurface.

However,Debra Winger makes her return here in one of the best performances of her career. "Big Bad Love" is a film based on the writings of Mississippi author Larry Brown. She people think that she retired from the cimema in recent years(her last film was nine years ago under the direction of Bernardo Bertlucci),but takes this chance to star opposite her real-life husband Arliss Howard(who stars,directs,and wrote the script). Howard plays,Leon Barlow,a depressive,alcoholic Vietnam veteran and aspiring writer. Aside from holding a candle for hs ex-wife(Winger),most of Barlow's time focuses on daily trips to the mailbox,sending off plies of manuscripts,and following enough rejection letters to wallpaper hs bathroom. He is played as a sympathetic ne'er-do -well,lovable enough to be excused for shirking his familial responsiblities as a father(including his two precious children),until the end of the film,when tragedy strikes and Barlow is forced out of his cynical melancholy.

Strong performances from Angie Dickinson as well(in a grand return to the silver screen)as Rosanna Arquette(whom I haven't heard from since the 1990's)and Paul Le Mat. This movie had the heart,the guts and the soul that makes it a piece of grand cimematic work. A must see!

Rating: **** out of *****

Did not see the first part of the movie, but the cable guy showed up and restored my IFC and this movie was playing.

The 4 word title describes it well. For those who appreciate poeticism and an only loosely linear plot line that serves as a framework for larger things, then you will enjoy this movie.

Thank you to those who made the film for choosing acting ability and realism over rigid and sterile glamor. It's hard to explain what I mean by that, but the actors and the settings pull the viewer into the story. You feel like you're the person with the cameras -- your eyes -- acting as a shadow to the protagonist's life. You feel privileged to be witness and to allow the emotions the characters feel wash through and into you.

The passages of prose read throughout the movie blur the line that often demarks the transforming of a novel into a film. I'm not even sure if it was a book first, and if it wasn't, it had the feel of it.

The liner notes on the IFC info screen on the TV said that Arliss Howard, the protagonist, and Debra Winger, the female lead, are married, and Arliss also directed.

Wonderful acting. Great locations. Well edited. Have Kleenex handy.

Unfortunately, Big Bad Love, for all its undeniably good anti-mainstream intentions, fails to come off even as the cutting-edge manifestation it tries so strenuously to be. Mr. Howard directs himself as a long-failed writer named Barlow, who keeps mailing manuscripts to various publishers and getting them all back with a variety of rejection letters. The returned manila envelopes bulk large in his rustic roadside mail box. But no matter: Barlow keeps stuffing the box with new manila envelopes. Words keep floating around his head, and even on the screen and on the soundtrack. Even big words you never expect to hear in the Mississippi hill country, except when you remember that you're very close to William Faulkner land and a rich Southern prose tradition that is to American literature almost what 20th-century Irish drama is to 20th-century British theater. And Barlow himself is not simply a fictional figure, but also an approximation of the thought processes of writer Larry Brown.

Big Bad Love actually begins deceptively, with fleeting glances of a bridal couple laughingly fornicating in a bathtub. When a fully dressed Barlow emerges in sleepy, grimy solitude to answer the door, we realize with the help of some pointed dialogue that we have been misled by an idealized memory of Barlow's long-ago marriage to Marilyn (Ms. Winger), from whom he is now separated. Currently, Barlow's only steady companion is a much-married layabout named Monroe (Paul Le Mat) who gets house-painting jobs for Barlow, shares his beer binges and flirts with Velma (Rosanna Arquette), a petty heiress he finally marries.

Barlow receives occasional visits from Marilyn when she drops off their two children for a paternal visit. Alan, the older of the two, keeps his emotional distance from his father, but Alisha is suffering from an incurable disease that foreshadows one of the catastrophes that is going to transform Barlow into a productive writer, much to the surprise of Marilyn and his mother, played by Angie Dickinson.

When you think about it, Big Bad Love has one of the strongest casts you will see in movies this year–and not a bankable one among them. In addition to Ms. Winger, Mr. Howard, Mr. Le Mat, Ms. Dickinson and Ms. Arquette, there is Michael Parks being remarkable in a grizzled cracker-barrel part. And you think some more, and you begin to understand what Ms. Winger hates about Hollywood and all its who's-hot-and-who's-not arbiters of talent, with a calendar in one hand and an adding machine in the other. I simply can't believe that an actress as gifted as Ms. Winger can't find a decent role to play in her mid-40's. The camera can be cruel, granted, but in Europe an actress of Ms. Winger's caliber would be kept busy in grown-up movies.

Ultimately, though Big Bad Love is not without misfortunes and misadventures, it is mercifully free of malignancy. And though the writer as hero is not an ideal movie subject, it is nothing if not morally refreshing.

I wanted to like this movie. Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed.

When there is little or no redeeming value in the main character of a movie, from beginning to end, all is lost.

Dead-beat, alcoholic father/writer masters the art of self-loathing and self-absorption.