Todd Hill's review in the
Staten Island Advance.
The Denver Post and the
Orlando Sentinel also mentioned the possibility that the Sandra Bullock character is trying to represent someone with Asperger's syndrome.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- You probably know someone like Mary Horowitz, just not very well, and for very good reason.
That reason is also a good reason to avoid "All About Steve," a noxiously unfunny comedy in which Sandra Bullock stars as a singularly grating crucibverbalist (one who creates crossword puzzles).
Mary doesn't have Asperger's syndrome, at least it's never mentioned, although all the signs are there. It's probably wise that the filmmakers didn't write it into the script, seeing as how it would've been an insult to everyone living with Asperger's if they had.
Hugh Dancy played a very appealing "Aspy" in the summer indie "Adam." There's nothing remotely appealing about Mary Horowitz, and I say that with full knowledge that she's portrayed by the consistently desirable Bullock.
Oh, Sandy is still desirable, all right. "All About Steve" marks her second consecutive film, after the summer dud "The Proposal," in which the 45-year-old actress appears to be out to prove that she still possesses a tight, toned physique.
She's also too old for romantic comedies like this, which perhaps is why she's cast here as a batty stalker, Hollywood's idea of the fate that awaits women who are still single into their 40s.
Mary's target is Steve, a cable TV news cameraman portrayed by Bradley Cooper, showbiz's current flavor of the month.
Cooper may be dreamy and all, if certain of my female newsroom colleagues are to be believed, although he comes off somewhat dweeby here, and what man wouldn't standing next to that hunkster Thomas Haden Church?
Church stars as Hartman Hughes, the journalist (I use that word loosely) who Steve frames in his camera as the two of them travel the country for one hysterically covered disaster after another -- tailed always by the adoring Mary. Church is professionally tanned, his wavy, golden-retriever hair catches the sun; he's a Marlboro Man for the '00s. His character is also apparently single and interested in women.
But Mary has the hots for Steve because, well, that's his name in the movie's title. At any rate, it makes as much sense as anything else in the film.
Bullock spends the entirety of "All About Steve" rattling on about trivia, waving her arms like they were those little, useless appendages Tyrannosaurus Rex was burdened with, and wearing bright red go-go boots for no particular reason.
Well, that's not entirely accurate. Late in the film Mary is heard to say, "People always ask me why I wear these boots. I wear these boots because they make my toes feel like 10 friends on a camping trip." Huh?
That's about as much funny as "All About Steve" can manage until late in the proceedings when Mary falls into a very large hole. It's a collapsed mine shaft, and soon after her plunge a media phalanx gathers around the hole, breathlessly reporting on her plight for live TV.
This is a contemporary phenomenon ripe for satire, and some of it hits the mark here. And some of it is just stupid and weird. One TV journo is seen wearing a pair of red boots like Mary's for a broadcast "simulation," during which he trips and cries out in agony.
Or was that the guy sitting behind me?
Todd Hill's review in the Staten Island Advance. The Denver Post and the Orlando Sentinel also mentioned the possibility that the Sandra Bullock character is trying to represent someone with Asperger's syndrome.
