For starters, there isn’t a character named Steve in The Tao of Steve.  The title refers to a less-than-spiritual way of trying to bed women who wouldn’t ordinarily give a guy the time of day.  The titular Steve isn’t one particular Steve, but rather a blend of cool Steves (like McQueen and Austin…but definitely not Guttenburg).  Armed with a simple phrase (“We pursue that which retreats from us”), the Tao’s followers pride themselves on their ability to score by simply acting uninterested in scoring.

After a clever opening, where a book titled “The Tao of Steve” is shown on a bookshelf beside Plato, Aquinas and Dante, we meet Dex (Donal Logue, The Patriot), a chain-smoking, part-time kindergarten teacher who rides a motorcycle like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.  Dex is fat like the Buddah which rests on the headboard of his bed and, between breakfast bong hits, the fast-talking philosophizer maintains an affair with his friend’s wife.

Despite these qualities (or lack thereof), Dex is still able to sweet-talk the ladies, as evidenced by his ten-year college reunion, where he chats up a former classmate named Syd (Greer Goodman) and goes home with a nubile student bartender (Dana Goodman).  But Dex can't seem to shake the image of Syd, who is in town temporarily working as a set designer for a Santa Fe opera production.   Before long, Dex is hanging around Syd more and more, and the two even begin to carpool after his motorcycle breaks down.

If you haven't figured out the plot yet, you may be a stroke victim.  Dex is a modern-day Don Giovanni who sleeps with thousands of women because he’s afraid he’ll never find true love.  When he finds it in Syd, Dex is forced to abandon his own beliefs and attitude toward the opposite sex, turning himself into the lovesick loser that he used to openly mock.

Steve is garnering heaps of critical praise, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.  Most film critics are lazy, self-centered egomaniacs who aren't exactly beating off women with sticks (myself included), so the idea of a slovenly know-it-all who can score with chicks by not trying plays like the feel good film of the year (you can use the same rationale to explain American Beauty's critical success last year).  Logue, who won a Special Jury Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, is fantastic as Dex, but I sure hope he used a fake tummy for his performance.

Visually, Steve features bright, vivid colors in the beautifully shot (by Teodoro Maniaci, Smoke) interior and exterior Santa Fe scenes.  The sky is always a perfect blue, and the sunsets are always amazing.  If Steve were a bigger film, I'd almost expect Santa Fe's population to double in the next year.  It looks that incredible.  If Steve's beauty doesn't sell you on Santa Fe, maybe All the Pretty Horses will.  The Billy Bob Thornton film, which was also shot in the New Mexico city, will hit theatres at the end of this year.

Steve is the directorial debut of Jenniphr Goodman, who co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Greer (the one who plays Syd) and Duncan North.  If you look closely at the closing credits, they suggest the film is based on North's life.  The film is well directed for a first-timer, and the script is full of witty, intellectual banter that made me wonder if people really talk like this.  At times, the characters sound like they just stepped off the set of Dawson's Creek.

1:28 - for adult language and drug use