All About Steve (2009)

"Refreshingly quirky comedy.  Chuck Wilson, LA Weekly

Editor's Note A brilliant crossword-puzzle designer travels across the country in hopes of convincing a CNN cameraman that the pair is meant to be together, only to find her quest taking an unexpected turn in this romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, and Thomas Haden Church. Despite the fact that she has only gone on one short date with the man, a love-struck puzzle creator becomes enamored with a successful cameraman and follows him to a series of media events in hopes that the feeling is mutual. While she is saddened to discover that it is not, she soon becomes involved with a group of misfits who selflessly accept her at face value. First-time feature filmmaker Phil Traill directs a screenplay penned by LICENSE TO WED scribe Kim Barker.

	Sandra Bullock
	Thomas Haden Church
	Ken Jeong
	Keith David
	M.C. Gainey
	DJ Qualls
	Beth Grant
	Howard Hesseman
	Bradley Cooper
	Kim Barker - Screenwriter
	Sandra Bullock - Producer
	Mary McLaglen - Producer
	Ted Field - Executive Producer
	Nick Osborne - Executive Producer
	Trevor Engelson - Executive Producer
	Tim Suhrstedt - Director of Photography
	Christophe Beck - Composer
	Phil Traill - Director

Box Office
3 stars out of 5 -- "supported by a more than competent cast and full of solid and unpredictable verbal jokes....More a personal journey than it is a romance..." 09/04/2009

Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
It is not much fun to laugh at a crazy person. None, I would say. Sandra Bullock plays a character who is bonkers in All About Steve, which is billed as a comedy but more resembles a perplexing public display of irrational behavior. Seeing her run around as a basket case makes you appreciate Lucille Ball, who could play a dizzy dame and make you like her. Overacting is risky even in a screwball comedy. Perhaps especially...Bullock plays Mary Horowitz, a crossword puzzle constructor who knows a vast number of words and how they're spelled, but not much about how they might enlighten her. Because her apartment has to be fumigated, she moves back home with her parents. The headline here is how she earned enough to move out in the first place. I may be mistaken, but I think of crossword puzzle construction as more of a second job for smart people...You see what I mean. The point comes when we're rolling our eyes right along with Mary. But don't get me wrong. I am fond of Sandra Bullock. I've liked many of her films, as recently as this summer (The Proposal). But how does she choose her material? If she does it herself, she needs an agent. If it's done by an agent, she needs to do it herself...The screenplay by Kim Barker requires Bullock to behave in an essentially disturbing way that began to wear on me. It begins as merely peculiar, moves on to miscalculation and becomes seriously annoying. One of its most unfortunate elements is seeing Bullock so stranded and helpless in would-be comic frenzy. An actress should never, ever, be asked to run beside a van in red disco boots for more than about half a block, and then only if her child is being kidnapped. - Roger Ebert