All About Steve Review

Who knew that crossword puzzle constructors held all the secrets to life? I don't know if a truer adage has ever been spoken – "In life, as in crosswords, some days are harder than others." How often do you pick up that puzzle and think, wow, I can't get any answers today, and how often do you walk around and say it just isn't a good day. I didn't think I'd be seeing All About Steve and that it would be promoting thought for the rest of the day, but It was just one of the nice surprises in the movie.

Mary Magdalene Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) is the crossword constructor, and even the kids at Career Day call her out for having no life outside of crosswords, asking if she has no husband or boyfriend, and asking how she pays rent writing just one crossword a week. They're told she lives with her parents while her apartment is being fumigated. Her parents live in a house that looks like late 60s/early 70s style, much like the Brady Bunch. She also lives with a pet hamster, Carol. This is where I got scared, realizing I didn't always have a full dance card, and had three hamsters before I got married, Stray Cat, Crash, and Wild Thing.  Interestingly, Stray Cat lived to a very old age and began to get bald, resembling the cat on the Stray Cat logo. I digress, but you see my point, don't you?

The only dates Mary goes on are blind dates her parents have set her up on. Let's just say I didn't have Mary's luck in that manner. Usually, it's with the suspected gay sons of her parents' friends. Mary assumes Steve (Bradley Cooper) is another one in that long line, but within minutes of meeting him, says, "He's so not gay." She attacks him in his truck before they can even drive away from the front of her parents' house. Despite the fact that he's weirded out by her, as she tells him, "I'm going to eat you like a mountain lion," he's willing to have the quickie, until he gets a call to head to Boston. He's the cameraman for a cable news personality, Hartman Hughes (Thomas Haden Church), who travels around covering the bigger events across the country.

Steve makes a hasty retreat, but not before telling Mary he really wishes she could be there with him, and she takes him seriously, throwing caution to the wind and following him on his travels. Hartman catches on to Mary's obsession with Steve, but enjoys her being around them, because of her crossword-mind filled with useless information, such as the fact that the noble tree frog has three legs just like the little baby in the news story they're following. It helps him on the job and helps him in his pursuit of beating his cable news competitor, Vasquez. Mary meets some new friends out on the road, Howard and Elizabeth (DJ Qualls and Katy Mixon), roadies that follow the news stories, around.

Making light of the obvious stalker situation that forms here, if all stalkers could be as innocent as Mary, life would be much better for everyone. All About Steve has the frivolity that you expect in a romantic comedy, yet also takes some twists and turns you'd never expect, including the ending. This crossword constructor shows to have more than useful information filling her head, as she realizes that she enjoys crosswords because of a natural compulsion to fill empty spaces, the very reason she chases Steve.