Student Life Archives

American society hasn’t come so far that a gay comedy can be entirely without a political purpose and exist simply as a movie. But when this is possible sometime in the future, the result probably won’t actually be fundamentally different from All Over the Guy. Here, finally, is a movie that makes only obligatory and rather perfunctory nods to grand questions of “what it means to be a gay man looking for love” and really just hunkers down and tells a sweet story.
By all rights, All Over the Guy ought to be a predictable and trite tale of two people who can’t seem to get together because the things that they like best about one another are precisely the things that scare them the most. But really, the simplicity and familiarity of the plot is part of its appeal.
The film does not fall into the trap of making culturally acceptable images of homosexuality, nor is it trying to make deliberately alternative entertainment for the gay community-it is simply adhering to a sort of archetype of opposites-attract, will-they-or-won’t-they romance. And it revels in the fact that the “they” in this case is two guys. It stumbles along many of the pitfalls that trip up most romantic comedies these days-like a somewhat pat ending that glosses over the problems set up in the other 85 minutes of the film-but largely has enough charisma to make up for its faults.
Most of the credit goes to Dan Bucatinsky and Richard Ruccolo as the two guys, set up by their well-meaning best friends who are contentedly romancing one another, who begin a tumultuous on again, off again relationship. Both of them are given complex, interesting characters-Bucatinsky as the rigid, vulnerable Eli and Ruccolo as hard-drinking, fast-moving commitment phobic Tom-that they each play to the hilt. They, along with the array of supporting characters, are both sharp of tongue and of mind and as quick to make the smart-ass remark as the erudite reference, all qualities that seem to define the modern gay hero. But here they are also balanced by hesitation and uncertainty and genuine emotion that makes them both loveable. It is entirely possible that the unfortunate flatness of some of the other characters-and this is excluding the utterly unnecessary cameos by both Lisa Kudrow and Christina Ricci-makes the two leads appear more complex in comparison. But it’s also difficult to begrudge those characters one ounce of their hilarious flatness, especially Andrea Martin as Eli’s graphically meddling, emotion-obsessed mother and Doris Roberts as a nosy, vulgar AIDS clinic receptionist.
Even with the minor flaws of the film, like the blessedly short lived and awkward moments early on in the film that are riddled with, well, heterosexual stereotypes, and the very confusing and compressed time frame, it also manages to make subtle strengths out of its weaknesses. Relegating the straight relationship of the best friends to the sidelines is a sly commentary on the status of gay sidekicks in contemporary Hollywood-and probably more applicable, if less amusing, than the more overt and repeated slams against implausible fodder like In & Out. Though it is unfortunately too closely conscious with its sexuality, leaving that behind still results in a fine, if fluffy, romantic comedy.
****

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2001 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Cadenza. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.