Big Bad Love
IFC Films | Release Date: February 22, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
11
Negative:
4

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Brave and admirable for the trust that it puts in a viewer's intuition and willingness in going along with it right through to its rewarding finish.
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
One glance at the cast should be enough of a recommendation for any film lover -- it's Winger's first time on the screen in seven years, and Howard deserves a nod or two if only for getting his wife back in front of the camera where she so clearly belongs. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
It's an impressive movie, pointing to Howard as a promising new director. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Too long (and it sure ain't taut), but it brims with passion. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeStaff (Not credited)
It's messy, but in the end satisfying, a film worth making, a journey worth taking.
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
There's a sass and bite to Winger's acting, a grinning intelligence, unabashed sexiness and total immersion that make her one of the movies' few hipster female stars. Read full review
70
New Times (L.A.)Bill Gallo
Constantly touching, surprisingly funny, semi-surrealist exploration of the creative act. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
It's made with an accurate and loving, but also wary and squinty-eyed, view of the South. If only the movie hung together better overall. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
It's frustrating and still oddly likable. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
Held together by the blues -- Brown's prose and Howard's performance, Big Bad Love is a mess, but it's a sincere mess, beautifully shot by Paul Ryan and faithfully adapted by screenwriter James Howard. Read full review
60
VarietyDavid Rooney
A flawed and overlong but ultimately affecting account of one man's struggle to regain control of his life. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Howard luxuriates in writerly misery as Barlow, and the participation of the filmmaker's real-life wife, Debra Winger, as Barlow's ex gives the scenes between the two of them an unfakeable erotic charge. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The cast is so oddly interesting you wish you could see them doing something less wasteful Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The film's few saving graces include Dickinson's sardonic southern belle; Winger's welcome return to the screen after a five-year absence; and Howard's voice-over readings of Brown's powerful prose, which ultimately saves the film from itself. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Beneath its stylistic and structural quirks, Big Bad Love -- is a self-indulgent celebration of self-indulgence. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Has a secret weapon in Winger, whose part is small but crucial. Looking a bit older and with redder hair than previously, she brings an earthiness to a movie that could use a lot more of that quality. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Brown, is a good enough actor and director to keep the film afloat for long stretches. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It all comes down to whether you can tolerate Leon Barlow. I can't. Big Bad Love can, and is filled with characters who love and accept him, even though he is a full-time, gold-plated pain in the can. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
I don't know if Howard had fun directing, writing, and starring in this thing; but he had to have gotten more masochistic pleasure out of it than the audience does. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Howard lacks the sense of film rhythm --required to make such an exercise work. Just about the only clear triumph here is an underplayed performance by Angie Dickinson, though Winger and Rosanna Arquette also provide welcome relief from Howard and Le Mat's self-indulgent carousing. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The junk-shop surrealism ultimately gets the better of everyone's good intentions. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Brown's saga, like many before his, makes for snappy prose but a stumblebum of a movie. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
The only reason to check out Big Bad Love is Debra Winger, last seen onscreen in 1995. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
If the point of this umpteenth posttraumatic stress drama is that war is hell, even years after it's over and you're sitting in a movie theater, Big Bad Love makes it.
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