Essay About Is the Movie All About Steve Really All That Bad?

ALL ABOUT STEVE

When I heard that Sandra Bullock was the first actress to win both an Academy Award for best actress and a Razzie award for worst actress within the same year, I was intrigued. I had already seen The Blind Side and thought that she did an excellent portrayal worthy of her Academy Award. What was all this about her performance in All About Steve? I was curious to find out whether the movie All About Steve and Sandra’s performance in it were really all that bad.

As it turns out, I watched All About Steve the movie and didn’t think it was really all that bad at all. Sandra did a fine job portraying the specific character that she was given to play. It is not her acting that was bad. It was the character’s profile.

In All About Steve, Sandra Bullock portrays an emotionally immature and obsessed woman named Mary. In a lot of ways, Mary is brilliant. She has an excellent work ethic as a creator of crossword puzzles and seems to spend every waking moment devoted to her work. She even gives career talks at elementary schools and ignores the mocking by children who really have absolutely no interest in pursuing a profession such as hers.

• In other ways, Mary is very flighty.
• She still lives at home with her parents and allows them to fix her up on dates.
• She doesn’t expect much from such an allowance but one day, the man that comes by the house to take her out is unexpectedly handsome.

The man is Steve of course and Mary is re-energized just by the sight of him. She runs upstairs to change into what she considers a more appealing outfit and is ready to begin their date.

Unfortunately, she overwhelms Steve with her advances and he gently tries to reject her.

The scenario does not end with that evening, however. Mary becomes further obsessed and it even affects her work. She decides to write a crossword puzzle that is “All About Steve” and gets fired from her job for submitting unprofessional work.

1. This is a surprising turn in All About Steve the movie as Mary had been so dedicated to her work.
2. She momentarily becomes lost without her job but somehow, she sees a thwarted light at the end of the tunnel.
3. She figures that everything happens for a reason and since she does not have to commit time to work anymore, she has plenty of free time on her hands.
4. She can now pursue Steve further! (Oh, no.)

Steve’s own profession is news cameraman. He often has to travel the country chasing the next story. Mary learns where he will be next and follows him.

The rest of the film, All About Steve becomes about Steve running away from Mary at every turn. He no longer feels like he can be gentle with regard to turning her down. He thinks that she is a stalker, perhaps even a dangerous one as he becomes paranoid about the situation.

In the movie All About Steve, the character Mary certainly is obsessed and clueless. It is not until the end of the film that she learns that she should not pursue someone when the interest is not reciprocated but again this is the character that Sandra was given to play and she played it well.

I rate ALL ABOUT STEVE the movie: 3/5 stars

Rated PG-13

99 minutes

Starring Sandra Bullock as Mary, Bradley Cooper as Steve, and others