The Tao of Steve: Movie Review, DVD Review (2000)

Directed by Jenniphr Goodman, written by Duncan North with Greer and Jenniphr Goodman, 90 minutes, rated R.

(Originally published 2000)

Overweight male slackers in desperate need of a date should pay attention to Jenniphr Goodman’s “The Tao of Steve,” a romantic comedy that offers three helpful dating rules for those longing to be a chick magnet.

Rule 1: “Eliminate your desires. If you’re out with a girl and you’re thinking about [having sex], you’re finished. A woman can smell an agenda.”

Rule 2: “You have to do something excellent in her presence, therefore proving your sexual worthiness.”

Rule 3: “After you eliminate desire--and after you’ve proved your excellence--you must retreat.”

Armed with these rules, which are a peculiar combination of the philosophies of Lao Tzu, German philosopher Martin Heidegger and comedian Groucho Marx--and which, we’re told, can turn ordinary Joes into charismatic Steve McQueens--one should be as irresistible as our unlikely hero, Dex (Donal Logue), whose large and pendulous belly, intentionally reminiscent of Buddha’s, is the first thing one sees as the film opens.

About that belly--if it isn’t the star of the film, it comes close. Throughout, Goodman keeps her camera trained on it as Dex himself pats and rubs it. It’s meant to be in jarring contrast to what Dex used to be--the big man on campus--and it is, but one also senses that Dex uses it as a device to keep real love at bay, something that’s challenged when he meets and falls hard for Syd (Greer Goodman), a smart, beautiful woman immune to the rules Dex has lived by for years.

Much of the film’s substantial charm comes from Logue, who won a special jury prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival for his performance (initially, he’s like a present-day cherub crossed with a clown). But as the film deepens into its issues of love and honesty, right vs. wrong, the tone changes. These rules, as foolproof as they may be, have serious ramifications, which Goodman explores to a satisfying--if predictable--ending.

Grade: B+