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copyright ©1999-2001
DigsMagazine.com.
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flick pick
| The
Tao of Steve 2000
Directed by: Jenniphr Goodman
Written by: Duncan North, Greer Goodman, Jenniphr Goodman
Starring: Donal Logue, Greer Goodman
Language: English
Look for it at the video store under:
comedy
Watch it when you’re in the mood
for something:
lovey,
quintessentially
quasi-adult |
The verdict:
 / 5 the rating
system explained
|
Plot synopsis
Overweight Dex is
the walking definition of a slacker bachelor. He fritters his
days away smoking pot, drinking beer, tossing a frisbee around with his
friends, — and to balance the fun, spends just a
few half-days a week working as a nursery school teacher. He's
perfectly happy heading nowhere and remaining single. After
all, it’s not as if he doesn’t enjoy an inexplicable success rate
when it comes to seducing women far more beautiful and accomplished than he is. The former philosophy student may not have put his
quick mind to much use career-wise, but all that reading
of Buddhism, Confucianism and the like hasn’t gone completely
to waste: it’s lead him to the discovery of the Tao of Steve, the path
towards making oneself irresistible to women. The Tao of Steve divides
all males into two types: the Steves, the cool guys who always get the
girls, and the Stus, who perpetually try too hard and, sadly, don’t.
The secret to becoming a Steve isn’t in looks, asserts Dex, but in
following three fundamental rules: 1) Be desireless; 2) Be excellent; 3)
Be gone. But when Dex meets Syd at their college
reunion, she throws his world for a loop. And Dex soon finds that the
right woman can turn even a hardcore Steve into a little bit of a Stu.
Review The
Tao of Steve is a charming little piece of romantic indie fluff, and
I don’t mean that as a put-down in any way at all. In many respects,
it’s a conventional, old-fashioned romantic comedy – boy meets girl,
girl hates boy, boy wins girl over with his irrepressible charm once she’s
made him see the error of his ways, love and happiness prevail. There’s
nothing I could tell you about this movie that
could even remotely be considered a spoiler – you know exactly what’s
going to happen between Dex and Syd within 10 minutes of the opening
credits. Which is fine, because who doesn’t love a good happy-smiley love story that provides plenty of smart laughs along the
way? The Tao of Steve is especially satisfying because the two
main characters are so refreshingly normal looking that you completely
buy into them as real people, not contrived characters. Greer Goodman’s
Syd is attractive, yes, but it’s her no-nonsense sassiness and wit
that make her beautiful – her looks themselves are just slightly on
the plus side of plain. As for Dex, there’s no two ways about it: the
guy’s a complete oaf. It takes a truckload of natural
charisma to convince us viewers that a beer-gutted loser can be a
magnet for women, but Donal Logue succeeds at just that, thus proving
that he’s way too appealing an actor to be wasting his time on his
current job, star of the not-funny sitcom Grounded for Life. The
Tao of Steve never quite succeeds when it veers off into
quasi-intellectual philosophizing, but as a light, intelligent,
feel-good romance, it works. And if you don’t fall in love with any of
the characters, there’s always the lovely Santa Fe setting. —reviewed by Y. Sun
--------------------------->
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