There’s something wholesome and innocent about Sandra Bullock which renders her cute, but not sexy. For leading actresses in Hollywood, she’s refreshingly kooky. She’s more inclined to make you smile than make you swoon. But for all her undoubted charm, she is unable to save All About Steve. It’s unclear quite what screenwriter Kim Barker and director Phil Traill envisioned, but what they’ve ended up with is a unique genre: a romantic comedy with no romance and barely any comedy.
The central problem is that the main character of Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) is really annoying. A self-professed “cruciverbalist” (someone who compiles crosswords), she is perpetually upbeat and peppers every conversation with facts and minutiae that reveal her to be both incredibly smart and incredibly nerdy. She buzzes frantically around everywhere in her bright red boots, like a hyperactive child desperately in need of ritalin. It explains why, despite being attractive, she hasn’t been on a date for ages, much to the concern of her parents, with whom she lives.
When her parents set up on a blind date with the poor, unsuspecting Steve (Bradley Cooper), she virtually rapes him before he fends her off, making an excuse to escape. But he doesn’t get off that easily. She becomes obsessed with him and follows the news cameraman across the country from job to job. To flesh out this flimsy storyline, All About Steve features a large number of ancillary characters that provide little other filler. Most prominent amongst these is Hartman (Thomas Haden Church), the self-absorbed and vain reporter who Steve works with. It’s a performance that, while amusing, is very familiar.
Little makes sense throughout. Silly beyond comprehension, what few gags there are are garnered at the expense of any plausibility. The characters are all so cartoonish that it’s impossible to identify with any of them. And on those rare moments when everyone isn’t trying way too hard to please, the sentimentality is slathered on with a roller. There is a standard formula for romantic comedies, one that audiences are familiar with and expect, which is why the genre is a perennial favorite. You mess with that formula at your peril. In this case neither Traill nor Barker has the ability to overcome convention with the result All About Steve is infuriating and unfulfilling.
At one point the ebullient Mary enthuses, “Crosswording is the most spectacular fun a person can have without passing out.” Sadly the same cannot be said of All About Steve.
Kevin Murphy
