All Over the Guy

Plot synopsis:
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 son of emotionally distant alcoholic WASP parents who never quite accepted his sexual orientation and as a result is a heavy drinker himself and has a penchant for random hookups with different men. Eli's parents are both Jewish psychiatrists 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.

Tags: romantic, flashback

Review:
I find it difficult to watch films of actors I have worked with because it's hard to separate the character from the person I know.
Most of all, the characters of Brett and Jackie are very funny in a superb role reversal -- instead of the ubiquitous second-banana gay best friends, we have second-banana straight best friends.The only problem I have with the film is the same problem I have with straight versions of this kind of story.
This of course is because heterosexual males only feel safe if the gay men aren't portrayed as masculine (that's why so many of the straight guys are terrified of Cruising, seeking comfort in the delusions of The Man Show and Howard Stern).All Over The Guy is a film that breaks the barriers and focuses on issues of intimacy and finding ways to communicate -- and it's a big shame it didn't get the major distribution it deserves as it is right on the mark and so much more enjoyable than the endless line of circuit boy romances being released.
Dan Bucatinsky's character of Eli may be well groomed, but he isn't snapping his fingers and saying "girlfriend" ...these guys are just regular men, and it is comforting to know that someone out there knows the truth that many gay men are just as average as most people.
Joana Kerns was a nice surprise and as always, I WORSHIP the ground Andrea Martin walks on, she's one of the funniest women around.It's one of the only films I've seen that touches on issues that I've been trying to get so many people to understand: how so many assume gay men are only looking for quick sex and that when you get two guys together, it is assumed that one certain type of sexual act will occur.
Even the club-type "Future Love" tune during one scene was more akin to a B-52's song than the fluff that saturates Queer As Folk's soundtrack.It gives me great hope when I see a breakthrough film like All Over The Guy. It's for everyone, as this is not exclusively a "gay" film.
Well, with the likes of Andrea Martin, Lisa Kudrow, Christina Ricci and Doris Roberts in support, what do you think -- and how can you lose, especially since Dan Bucatinsky's script is so frequently sharp?Forget the nay-sayers and see this one.
And it has a script that is witty and sympathetic towards its characters, gay or straight, with some hilarious comedy from Eli's psychologist parents as portrayed by Martin and Abatemarco.
The movie constantly touches on an interesting issue or storyline, but chickens out before anything goes too far away from the mainstream (as in the story about Tom's parents and his sister, alcoholism).
It still is nice to see a movie with gay characters acting as normal people.
It is a complex and wonderful story of 4 friends, and it includes a seldom-seen-in-films friendship between a straight man and a gay man which was very real and very wonderful to see.The romance between the straight characters is less interesting than that of the two gay men, however, because the two gay men come from such different worlds:  one is an alcoholic WASP with alcoholic parents and the other is the son of hyper-analytical Jewish psychiatrists.
The hetrosexual relationship is perfectly mirrored with their own gay one, the four leads are perfect and I loved Doris Roberts as the straight talking STD clinic worker.
It is a good addition to a growing genre of films, which deal with human issues about relationships in a gay/lesbian/bisexual context.
I think anyone who reads this comment can be guaranteed a good film and should go an see it to experience its warmth, humor and intelligence about people in love..
Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) and Tom (beautiful Richard Ruccolo) are both gay and attracted to each other but while Eli wants a firm commitment, Tom is afraid.
Like a lot of reviewers have said here, it's nice to see two gay men viewed in the true representation of their lives.
These two guys came together and brought so much garbage with them that they couldn't see each other and the love that they had for each other.I really don't have that much to say about this film, except that I truly enjoyed it and I would watch it again anytime.
The characters are so full of life that in the end of the movie we have that urge to know what happened in the day after.
Wonderful movie about normal people who, straight and gay, theirfriendships, relationships and their lives.
He adapted his play for the screen and got this film made with participation from some of the best comic actors (although Lisa Kudrow's scene is somewhat pointless).
Doris Roberts is wonderful, and gives a lot to the role of a character who's primary function is to sit and listen.Julie Davis's skilled direction sets the tone for this film, and she keeps things light mostly.
(According to IMDb user comments, she seems to have done much better directing this film than the ones she herself wrote.)  For this film, that is fine, but the subject of alcoholism is not really dealt with in too much depth, and that character's parents are not given enough screen time to give real insight into their relationship with their kids (or lack thereof).
Best scene:  Andrea Martin cursing out the television when a certain movie she has issues with comes on.You may or may not believe these two men will stay together, but the journey each one makes is worth coming along for the ride.P.S.
For all the references making fun of Eli's psycho-babbly touchy-feely embarassing parents, they seem to have raised a great brother and sister who support each other and get along well, so maybe this film is more of an endorsement of hippie parenting than Dan thinks!.
Wait till you get to the scene where the two boys (and that's what they seem like, boys, not men) argue over "Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear."  The "clever" dialogue makes you grind your teeth it's so numbling banal and self-congratulatory.The film also brings in a straight couple to try to balance things.
The whole thing plays out like a laughless gay sitcom pilot: boring people, limp dialogue and some embarassing "big" scenes at the end to try and whip up your interest.I was astonished that people like Don Roos and Doris Roberts were associated with this film that reeks of a vanity project.
One or both of the gay male leads was miscast;  there was absolutely no chemistry between them and Richard Ruccolo looked like he'd rather be kissing a dog.
These reasons would make for some interesting characters, not the fight or the make-up scene in bed (lame even if you liked the movie).Andrea Martin and Adam Goldberg shine as their characters, but it doesn't make the film worth renting.
Dan Buchatinsky also wrote the film, and when one of his characters repeats a line that they never heard in the movie previously (because it was said to someone else, and this person wasn't there), it really sticks out.
The acting was excellent and i think Richard did a very good job so as all the other casts of the movie.
I can watch this movie over and over again and it leaves you with a warm feeling inside.Sadly I don't agree at all with movieman-151's description of the movie, but maybe that's because I'm not a gay man or a man at all, for that matter.I liked the fact that two people who at first don't seem to connect or mesh at all can find love - just like in the real world.
Movieman-151, it's people who don't believe that two people like Tom and Eli in this movie can get together are the kind of people that create these stereotypes and prevent non-clones from getting together.Eli was wonderfully witty and says all the things you wish you had come up with in retrospect.
The story would have been complete sap if it had been played the other way around as you suggested.I thought it wasn't a movie about gay politics, it was a movie about gay relationships without being sappy like The Sum of Us.
Good Job. It's like Eli says it in the movie: why do all gay-movies have to be about sex, not about love?
They fumble along with the help of their best friends Brett and Jackie.Dan Bucatinsky wrote and stars in the film as Eli, a slightly neurotic column writer.
Ruccolo plays Eli's love interest Tom woodenly and seems to be hung over the whole film.
This is more like a movie to watch right around the time you are thinking about taking a relationship to the next level....to allow you both to see acceptance, with flaws.
As a film festival programmer who's viewed more than 300 submitted movies in the past year, AOTG ranks up there with the best of them in the "gay comedy" genre, and which should appeal to the majority of "straight" movie-goers, too.
It's a "feel-good" date movie, well-directed and exceptionally well-acted (particularly Richard Rucollo, in a role that's a far departure from his former TWO GUYS AND A GIRL TV-Series persona), which deserves to become a break-out hit during its theatrical run.
Featuring guest cameos by Lisa Kudrow, Christina Ricci and Doris Roberts, AOTG is foremost a comedic love story between two twenty-something men in search of "the one."  And more impressively, a film whose light tone, upbeat score and clever one-liners are a welcome departure from this year's crop of "brooding and complex gay issues" movies which are currently circulating the cineplexes and festivals.
I particularly applaud Ricci because it is not the first time she stars in a gay related film that I watched, the other being The Laramie Project.The plot itself is quite complex, with the main story with two small side plots about the two main characters telling their story to other people.
This is a story about Eli and Tom, who met, fell in love, discovered that they have issues with each other, thus setting up the standard will-they-or-won't-they-live-happily-ever-after romantic comedy scenario, except that in this case it is about two men.
There are many things to recommend this film, a good script, the reasonably good acting (for the most part, not sure about Dan Bucatinsky), characters that you might care about, the gentle comedy, but above all, a good heart.A number of things fail this movie however.
While it is obvious that for Eli it is love at first sight (or rather when he first looked into Tom's eyes), it's hard to tell what Tom sees in Eli. There is a good reason why the leads in romantic films are generally attractive people (and Richard Ruccolo is good looking), and it is to stop us asking this awkward question.
I start because I really like watching Ruccolo and then stay because the supporting cast is as good as you'll find in any major studio "romantic comedy" (including a hoot-out-loud cameo by Lisa Kudrow) and the script is much, much smarter than most.
It's refreshing a movie like that, because almost all the gay movies are or stereotyped or tragic.It's a funny comedy about two men quite so different sometimes, but with some nice connection that grows with time - in fact one is the opposite of the other but at the same time not just in this order -really nice actors, nice quotes, fun to watch, to cry.
I found the movie to be very believable and actually know people who could be these characters.
I think the real story of this movie is that none of us know what we're really looking for until we actually find it.
I just loved the way the characters Tom and Eli interacted together as well as the way their friends worked to set them up.
It was great seeing one of the characters who was having problems coming to terms with his own wish/need for lasting love grapple with his demons and finally allow himself to reach out and touch some real happiness.
We need more films like this to allow American society to better understand gay life.
I loved the screen play, though the acting of Tom (Richard Ruccolo) detracted (clearly a straight guy trying to act gay after seeing Russell Crowe in the Sum of Us one too many times; except that Russell Crowe has that special talent so difficult to duplicate).
The first date of Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) and Tom (Richard Ruccolo) goes down in flames, but on a second meeting something ignites.
Here's why:There aren't many films with opinions are widely and clearly polarized as those regarding `All Over the Guy.'  That's a nice way of saying you either loved it or hated it.
Even when I'm there, I'm square, so where's the incentive?')  Overall, I thought the dialogue was sharp, and the juxtaposition of a gay relationship against a straight one was handled nicely.I also really liked the acting in this film.
We're asked to believe that it's because he sees something greater in Tom, but by the final quarter of the film it looks more like Eli hasn't an ounce of self-respect.
The ending seems entirely forced; any two everyday gay men in Los Angeles would have called it quits long, long before these two.It's too bad, because there was so much in this movie that I really enjoyed.
Funny, poignant, and I thought a great film that just happens to have two gay characters.
It was great to see a movie with a gay plotline with good production values.
I've met several guys like Tom in real life, and many like Eli, so it makes a pleasant change to see some believable characters in a gay film instead of all pumped up muscle boys and prissy queens.
While most boy-meets-girl (or in this case boy-meets-boy) feature characters who wind up falling head over heels with each other and completing each other entirely, this film shows a relationship that evolves very much like one in the real world -- complete with mixed signals, missed opportunities and people struggling with various issues.
The two main actors are good, especially Richard Ruccolo from "Two Guys and a Girl", but the standout performance comes from Sasha Alexander as the "best friend".
The dialogue comes a little too fast at times...your laughing and Adam Goldberg's much too fast delivery covers much of the terrific script, but the movie is worth your ticket price for the large cameo performances by Lisa Kudrow and especially Doris Roberts as the STD clinic receptionist.
Although the film is nothing special in the totality of the movie world, it is somewhat special in using a gay theme for a more or less traditional romantic comedy.
The audience at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras film festival found this movie very funny.
I like movies with glib, funny dialogue, but this script is a far cry from "All About Eve."  It's more like a sophisticated sitcom, with better jokes and a lot of curse words (although I don't know anyone in real life who uses "f**k" as much as these people did.)  I was puzzled as to why the two gay male characters were attracted to each other in the first place and why they kept going back to each other.
It was the first time I watched an independent film which happened to be a romantic comedy, which happened to have two gay men as it's subjects, which happened to have all the humor, heart and Hollywood romance of a big-budget, studio romantic comedy...
I think this film will go down in history as being able to tell a story with gay characters and straight characters while bringing itself into the mainstream.
Anyways this movie is incredible and the BEST gay film i ever saw!
i highly recommend it!@ you will Cry, Laugh, all that good stuff...its on of those movies where you actually feel like the plot is real and you are hoping and wishing for the character..
One reviewer commented on the music saying it was refreshing not to hear Cher or music like "those mainstream gay movies".
This movie is okay - more good than bad - but it has a couple of huge flaws.First, the attraction between Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) and Tom (Richard Ruccolo) is completely unbelievable.
Since that relationship is the heart of the movie, its total lack of believable passion is a very serious flaw.Better casting of either (especially Tom) or both roles could have solved it.
And no one is mentioning how the "Brokeback" movie had the lead character murdered, just like gay films have been doing since the beginning.
A pure romantic comedy this is NOT.........perhaps, more correctly, it's a "dramedy." After all, how many mainstream gay movies have you seen in which a character utters such descriptively jarring words (see title of this comment, above) after a sexual act that's earlier taken place?
Generally, standard Hollywood films (like the mentioned In & Out, which is a great movie don't get me wrong) about gay couples are very cliché.
And what a way to think, that maybe we can be happy if we're not married to our dream man/woman, in the house with the white picket fence, but perfectly happy with friends, family, and the things in life that can be just as important as love.More importantly, I found that this movie was really realistic in portraying gay men.
What I mean by that is here is a movie about gay men that contains people I want to meet, that I would want to be friends with.
Eli and Tom are two men that are thrown together due to the fact that their respective (straight) best friends would like to build on their "meet cute".
I believe I dated Tom (the character in the movie) for about three weeks in 1990.