Themes: Opposites Attract, Playing the Field, Looking For Love
Main Cast: Dan Bucatinsky, Richard R. Ruccolo, Adam Goldberg, Sasha Alexander, Christina Ricci
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Actor and playwright Dan Bucatinsky wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his play I Know You Are, But What Am I?, though for the big-screen version, his slightly fractured love story was given a same-sex twist. Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) is a journalist working with a major L.A. newspaper who is single and not loving it. Eli is also gay, and makes no secret of the fact that he's looking for a nice guy that he can settle down with. Eli's best friend Brett (Adam Goldberg) knows a woman named Jackie (Sasha Alexander), who says she has a friend who would be perfect for Eli. Thus Eli is introduced to Tom (Richard Ruccolo), a special education instructor and devoted nightlife enthusiast. Eli and Tom's first date turns out to be just short of a disaster; Tom indulges in his overweening enthusiasm for alcohol and tobacco, and Eli is disgusted to learn Tom has never seen Gone With the Wind. Things appear to be over for Eli and Tom before they even started, until they meet by chance while shopping a few days later; this time, a conversation rather than an argument develops, and the two end up spending the night together. Eli begins to think love may have finally found him, until Tom dashes off the next morning, leaving Eli to wonder if Tom has any interest at all in a long-term commitment. All Over the Guy also features small cameo roles by Lisa Kudrow, as an actress not skilled in voice-over work, and Christina Ricci as Eli's cynical sister. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Gay romantic comedies have come a long way since In & Out. That's the message of All Over the Guy, in which several characters use the 1997 Kevin Kline starrer as an example of how to make a pandering and homophobic movie that masquerades as an empowering groundbreaker. Executive producer Don Roos, who directed the gay-themed The Opposite of Sex, and director Julie Davis have made one of the most matter-of-fact gay movies to hit the screen, a structurally simple love story which happens to star two men instead of a man and a woman. There's neither a hot-button hook nor anyone debating whether to come out of the closet -- just earnest performances and witty dialogue. Dan Bucatinsky, who stars as Eli and was romantically linked to Roos at the time, neither courts nor shies away from gay jokes in his screenplay, employing them only as a natural part of the teasing camaraderie that characterizes the featured friendships. He perfectly captures Eli's balance between skepticism and yearning, and Richard Ruccolo makes a credible departure from TV's Two Guys and a Girl as the unsentimental stud, Tom. Sasha Alexander and Adam Goldberg are winning as the film's bickering heterosexual couple. Among the supporting performances, Roos regulars Christina Ricci and Lisa Kudrow are forgettable, but Doris Roberts, as the cheerfully vulgar clinic receptionist who becomes Eli's confidante, nearly steals the show. Look also for Joanna Kerns, late of TV's Growing Pains, playing against type as Tom's alcoholic mom. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Patrick Rush - Casting, Sharon Klein - Casting, Peter Mitchell - Costume Designer, Julie Davis - Director, Mary Morrisey - Editor, Glenn Garland - Editor, Susan B. Landau - Executive Producer, Don Roos - Executive Producer, Andrew Williams - Composer (Music Score), Fanee Aaron - Production Designer, Goran Pavicevic - Cinematographer, Dan Bucatinsky - Producer, Lee Howell - Sound/Sound Designer, Dan Bucatinsky - Screenwriter
All Over the Guy is an American gay-themed romantic comedy film directed by Julie Davis in 2001.
Plot
All Over the Guy is about Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) and Tom (Richard Ruccolo). The film is told mostly in flashback, with Eli recounting his side to Esther (Doris Roberts), an HIV clinic worker as he waits for test results and Tom to a guy he meets at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Tom is the adult child of emotionally distant alcoholic parents. Eli's parents are both psychologists who raised him to be emotionally open but ended up making him neurotic.
Tom and Eli are set up on a blind date by their best friends, Jackie (Sasha Alexander) and Brett (Adam Goldberg), who think they would be a perfect match. They're both looking for 'The One', but don't recognize it when they find it. On the date, a boring evening is broken up only by an amusing diatribe by Tom against the movie In & Out. A few days later they run into each other at a flea market and hit it off, winding up back at Eli's place where Tom spends the night. The next morning Tom says that it was a mistake.
Jackie and Brett decide to try again to set them up, and the two men start to develop a relationship. Tom's fear of becoming emotionally close coupled with Eli's own insecurities makes it difficult for them to maintain, but Jackie and Brett get engaged which forces Tom and Eli together. They disguise their unease behind petty arguments over meaningless details of grammar and pronunciation but are finally able to push past the pettiness and make love. Eli tells Tom he loves him and Tom, terrified, lashes out at him the next day and drives him away.
The flashbacks end here on the day of Brett and Jackie's wedding. Esther tries to teach Eli to be more understanding of Tom's emotional needs. The AA member tries to sexually assault Tom, and when he tells Jackie she upbraids him for throwing Eli away for daring to fall for him. At the reception, Eli and Tom come to realize that they have to overcome their families' dysfunction and their own fears.
