Some have complained that this film doesn't say anything serious about Taoism; others have complained about its dialogue being watered-down from what could have been a super-verbose "Dinner w/ Andre." Sorry - this from a film student who abhors "my dinner w/ andre" - thank God this film ended up as eminently watchable as it was. I avoided seeing it for a long time because I feared exactly the opposite. Firstly, the central observation this film makes about human nature is so spot-on -- namely, that every relationship is comprised of someone chasing and someone being chased -- that almost no direction it could have taken from there would have undermined the essential honesty of it. But framing, as it did, a story of boy meets girl, forgets he slept with her in college, strikes out, becomes desperate, finally gets her back by going against every rule in the book, the story becomes a smart, no-nonsense telling of a quintessential human drama that resonates realistically on so many levels. People have said it's a chick movie; it's not. It's a movie for guys who fear intimacy, its essential message being that a relationship of real value can never be condensed from the vaporous nuance of gamesmanship, slyness, intellect or skill. But at the same time, it demonstrates very realistically how all the above can combine to get the average guy laid far more than he deserves. So not only is it valuable on both these levels, it leaves you nodding your head so many times, mumbling, "that's so f*ing true," that by the end you're pretty much ready to write your own Tao of Steve -- a better one -- and isn't that kind of inspiration the loftiest goal of any good and truthful work of art?
Review of The Tao of Steve
