There's a problem when Dex demonstrates this by citation: he names Steve McGarrett, Steve Austin, and Steve McQueen, two of whom are television characters. Neither do the filmmakers say anything remotely definitive about their womanizing subject; the closest The Tao of Steve comes to anything but editorializing is in saying that Dex enjoys food and pot too much. The females behind the camera, who'd surely have a more principled perspective on the character if they weren't so close to Dex's true-life counterpart, seem detached. (The movie's suddenly moralistic ending feels, if not phoney, then unrealized; I'm barely willing to acknowledge it.)

Nevertheless, the movie pays homage to an original: the overweight seducer is novel, and Goodman's lack of contempt for him (she even cast sister/co-writer Greer Goodman as the ultimate apple of Dex's eye, an opera hound who's trying to forgive Dex for not keeping in touch after their college indiscretion), however undue, is refreshing. If nothing else, the Jenniphr of the Goodmans achieves vérité in surrounding Dex with average-looking conquests; a male director would likely have lived vicariously through the protagonist by hooking him up with supermodels. This extends to the men in the cast as well, although I hope not to encounter infelicitous Kimo Wills again anytime soon. As Dave, Dex's thickheaded roommate, he's an antidote to our goodwill.

I perked up whenever Duncan North contributed to The Tao of Steve's DVD commentary track: he enriches certain scenes by divulging the personal sequence of events that led up to what we're seeing--subtext. In some ways, after listening to North, I wish the film had a broader scope to encompass Duncan's/Dex's formative, competitive years. Unfortunately, the two Goodmans and Logue, who talk alongside or over North, are from the Farrelly Brothers school of commentary: they denote the appearance of every last friend of theirs who cameoed.

Otherwise, the disc looks great, sporting a 1.85:1, 16x9-enhanced transfer that brings vibrant colour and detail to every stray blade of grass in the Santa Fe desertscapes. Furthermore, the generic Dolby Surround audio is at least very easy on the ears. A weblink to "The Steve Test", plus trailers for The Tao of Steve, The Patriot, and Jerry Maguire (I had forgotten how sickeningly precious that one is), keep this DVD safely out of "Stu" territory. (In-joke; you'll have to see the flick.).-Bill Chambers

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