The Tao of Steve

I finally saw The Tao of Steve, directed by Jenniphr Goodman, a much heralded independent film, and, I must say, I was disappointed.

It's a romantic comedy about Dex Logue (Donal Logue), a character actually inspired by one of the film's writers, Dunco North (who makes a cameo). Despite mediocre looks and weight issues, Dex manages to be rather successful with the ladies.

He does this by following the Tao of Steve, a code of life named for famous "Steves" such as Steve McGarrett (Hawaii 5-0), Steve Austin (The Six Million Dollar Man), and, of course, Steve McQueen (nuff said). Briefly, this philosophy holds that the more disinterested you act around women, the more they'll want you. As opposed to the Tao of Stu, where males pine and whine over their women, only to be treated like the doormats they really are.

A neat concept to be sure. Unfortunately, we never REALLY see an effective demonstration of the Tao of Steve in action. The technique isn't really displayed when Dex lands the ancillary female characters (if it was, I missed it). For a guy who portends to land the babes by acting like he could care less, Dex constantly wears his heart on his sleeve.

This is especially true when it comes to Syd (Greer Goodman), Dex's main love interest, who he's reunited with at his ten-year college reunion. As far as I can tell, He NEVER even tries to use his Steve technique on her. Unless you count cooking a fancy mahe mahe dinner from scratch as a Steve move (which I don't).

Of course, Syd is a different kind of girl. She plays the drums. And we all know from Pretty in Pink , oops, I mean Some Kind of Wonderful, that only really COOL chicks play the drums.

Midway through the film, there's a boring camping sequence, where in one horridly predictable scene, a tentless Dex looks so pathetic that Syd let's him share HER tent. HARDLY a Steve thing (more like a Man's Favorite Sport or Brokeback Mountain thing).

Okay, maybe the point is that NO ONE can really live up to the Tao of Steve. I get it. Unfortunately, they didn't convince me.

It would have been far better if the film had introduced us to this incredible prick who REALLY does practice what he preaches and then chronicled his successes. Sure, he could have an epiphany at the end about the shallowness of that life and jettison the Tao for a more meaningful code (or not).

Instead, we have this fat guy who tells the main romantic interest that he loves her by their third or fourth scene. Steve wouldn't do that, would he?

Oh, AND did I mention that Dex works with kids. Awww, how cute? If there's anything worse than when a mainstream Hollywood movie uses kids as emotional props, it's when an inde film does it.

In the end, I felt that The Tao of Steve wanted me to like it SOOOO much that I just couldn't.

Pretty much a Stu move.