It's a topic we avoid like the plague, especially the nearer we get to our graduation day: What will become of us? Will the top scholars continue down the path to success? Will the relationships we make last? And, most importantly, what will happen to our love lives?
These thoughts provide the spine for "The Tao of Steve," written by sisters Greer and Jenniphr Goodman with their friend Duncan North. Steve is not actually a character, rather a state of mind introduced by protagonist Dex (Donal Logue).
Steve is a term representing the pinnacle of coolness to Dex. Why the name Steve? Because of a trio of men who represent coolness in popular culture: Steve Austin (of "The Six Million Dollar Man"), Steve McGarrett (for those who remember "Hawaii Five-0") and most notably, famed actor Steve McQueen.
Steve can be achieved by following three simple rules: eliminate one's desire for sex; demonstrate excellence at something in a woman's presence; and make sure to exit a situation so that a woman always wants more. Steve's opposite is Stu, a name that signifies the epitome of un-coolness.
The gimmick of "Tao" is that Dex succeeds at being a player despite his obesity. At the beginning of "Tao," we find Dex at his 10-year college reunion, engaging in a quickie with a married woman. An arrogant, libidinous college student in Santa Fe, Dex has not changed much. He lives in a bachelor pad, walks around in his bathrobe, and works part-time as a pre-school teacher.
However, despite his professing, it is Dex who is really the student in "Tao." His teacher in the lessons of love is Syd (Greer Goodman), a fellow alum who returns to Santa Fe to work on her current set design assignment. Suddenly, Dex's rules fail him, and he finds himself falling for Syd in spite of himself.
The role of Dex fits Logue like a glove. It is no secret why girls swarm around Dex. Logue, who won a special jury prize for individual performance at the Sundance Film Festival, achieves the nearly impossible and turns his witty protagonist into a romantic rather than a cynic. Dex is perfectly comfortable and at ease with himself, and this confidence is what draws in the ladies.
Logue himself demonstrates this confidence too, but he uses it to show the flip side of where Dex's antics get him. In a none-too-subtle comparison to the lead in "Don Giovanni," the opera on which Syd is currently working, Dex also takes many fly-by-night lovers because he is too afraid of never finding a permanent love.
As the woman intended to shift his romantic gears, Syd is a bit of a stretch. I am not sure whether the fault lies more in Greer Goodman's performance or the writing, but considering that she has a hand in both, she cannot claim infallibility. Syd has a vulnerable core hidden beneath a veneer of self-assurance, and this comes off very well in her banter opposite Logue. However, at other times, especially during her numerous utterances of "Oh my Go-od," it is impossible not to find this supposedly independent woman dippy.
But "Tao" itself is an independent movie through and through, and Jenniphr Goodman's singular vision focuses it. It is only in a small film like this that a filmmaker can zero in on all the little things that make daily life worthwhile. So we have charming scenes of Dex at work with his children and at play with his roommates. Additionally, the film's soundtrack, with charming little ditties tailor-made for the film and cinematography that makes as much love to the sights of Santa Fe (the director's native town) as Dex does to the ladies in his lair.
In fact, it is only when Jenniphr Goodman pulls us away from these welcome distractions that "Tao" feels remotely lacking. Since we can smell Dex's and Syd's inevitable attraction to each other from the get-go, their entanglement feels a little prolonged during the final act of the film.
But although "Tao" ambles along its romantic path rather than escalating it, it is a welcome journey. And if Dex thinks of love as a trap, then Jenniphr Goodman shows us just what a tender trap that can be.
Grade: B+
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