All About Steve
PG-13 for sexual content including innuendos
We need a word for lame-ish movies with really likable stars. Who doesn't like Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, or Bradley Cooper? (Okay, I'm not as high on Bradley Cooper.) But "All About Steve," the story of a harmless and annoying stalker with a stellar vocabulary, proves again that likable stars aren't enough to make a great flick.
The Story
Mary (Bullock) is the cruciverbalist for the "Sacramento Herald." That means she builds the weekly crossword puzzle for the paper Her personality is defined by the fact that she constantly uses and defines words like cruciverbalist -- and that she never stops talking (and not in that endearing way the Sandra Bullock never stops talking in all of her other movies).
Mary lives with her parents, and she's lonely. Everyone tells her she should try to "be normal." So she agrees to go on a blind date set up by her mom -- and quickly throws herself (literally and sexually) at Steve (Bradley Cooper) moments after they get into his car. Steve is fine with this until Mary starts talking, then he fakes a work emergency and takes off to get away from her.
Mary, clueless, is in love and quickly hits the road to be with Steve on his job as a traveling TV news cameraman. When she shows up at big story in Arizona, Steve is terrified she might kill him, stalker-style. But his co-worker, reporter Hartman Hughes (Thomas Haden Church) is amused, privately telling Mary that Steve is just afraid of his love for Mary and that she should keep following him, no matter what.
She does so with the help of a couple of odd ducks (DJ Qualls and Katy Mixon) looking for adventure. They collectively stalk Steve to a hurricane in Texas and then the site of a crisis in Colorado where a bunch of deaf children are trapped in an abandoned mine. (Funny, right?)
Is Steve Mary's destiny? Is she meant to learn valuable lessons about herself on the road? Will we ever learn why she wears those crazy red boots all the time? (Hint: Probably.)
The Verdict
What we thought of the movie on its own terms
What Works: As noted above, the stars of "Steve" are a mostly likable bunch, although Sandra Bullock succeeds in creating a character annoying both to those in the film and many in the theater. Still, I enjoyed the wisecracking of Thomas Haden Church as the ambitious and vain reporter. And the soundtrack had some nice songs. It's the kind of movie I could imagine laughing at more if watching it too late at night with some funny friends providing jokey commentary.
What Doesn't Work: "All About Steve" feels like it might have a better movie in it somewhere if it wasn't trying so hard to be a comedy. If Mary's character had truly been a kind of socially crippled brainiac trying desperately to find her place in the world, it may have made for an interesting drama. Or if she'd been a fatally-attracted loon, a quirky horror movie may have been fashioned from the mix. Or, better yet, Mary might be a good detective on a show on the USA network, like a cross between "Monk" and "Psych."
Instead, the movie can't seem to decide if it wants us to laugh with or at Mary and Steve and Hartman Hughes. Are we supposed to care about them or just mock them? The film doesn't make them outrageous enough to laugh at much or sympathetic enough to care for overly. So we're just lost waiting for Thomas Haden Church to be given something funny to say.
Eventually, the story stops making any sense at all when it gets into the big final act at the abandoned well. You know something is off when DJ Qualls is the most normal person on the screen.
Content: An early scene in which Mary jumps Steve in his SUV includes some significant sexual dialogue and touching (really) for a PG-13 comedy that is otherwise not about sex. Harsh language includes uses of God's and Jesus' names for swearing. The film also uses the vulnerability of deaf children as kind of a joke.
Worldview
How the film's take on life compares to a biblical perspective
It's a message as old as Hollywood: "You gotta be you." Everybody wants Mary to "be normal," to conform more closely to society's definition of what that means. Mary decides that normal means a life with Steve, but eventually learns that she can't -- and shouldn't -- change who she is to be acceptable to anyone else. Instead, she decides to find others "as normal as me."
Wow, that sounds good on paper. But Mary's problem isn't just that she's different, that she's really smart and has an odd view of the world. Her problem is also that she lacks the self-control to stop talking, the empathy to notice when people are annoyed with her, and the wisdom to know how to think far enough ahead to avoid falling into giant holes in the earth roped off by yellow tape and emergency vehicles.
Even from a completely secular point of view, being yourself only makes sense if yourself doesn't contain any moral, mental, emotional, or psychological flaws. It's not good logic to just accept the part of yourself that tells lies and steals things and stalks people. It is a good idea to try to change those things about yourself, in that sense.
And from a biblical point of view, God calls Christians not to accept ourselves as we are but to embrace a brand new self that looks exactly like Jesus. In Colossians 3:1-17, Paul describes how we can participate with God in exchanging the "old us" for the "new us in Christ."
The point, of course, isn't to become more acceptable to guys like Steve -- or even to like ourselves more -- it is to please the God who already loves us as much as He ever will. A strange byproduct, though, of becoming more and more like Jesus is uncovering more and more of your true self, the version of you God created and is perfecting.
The more we make it "all about God," the more we find joy in being exactly who He made us to be.
Questions
- Maybe it's just me. Did you like Mary's story? What was your favorite part?
- How many films can you think of where you really liked the cast but couldn't stand the film? Any ideas for a name for movies like that?
- Do you do crossword puzzles? Know anyone who does?
- What are some examples of odd things people should accept about themselves and foolish things people should try to change about themselves? How can you know the difference?
- What is the deal with DJ Qualls?
- What does it mean to you to take on the identity of Christ? Can you be yourself and still be true to being like Jesus? Why or why not?
- What are some of the movies you're most looking forward to seeing this fall?
Rek on Sep 08, 2009 said...
Loved the USA show somewhere between Monk & Psyche assessment
Also, for question 2b: “late” (i.e., like actor but hate the movie = “late”) or “gene kelly flick”.