Production year: 2001 Directed by: Julie Davis Writing credits: Dan Bucatinsky Starring: Dan Bucatinsky, Richard Ruccolo, Adam Goldberg, Sasha Alexander, Christina Ricci, Lisa Kudrow, Doris Roberts, Tony Abatemarco, Joanna Kerns, Andrea Martin .

All Over The Guy

Love and Lust
By Stian Nilsen

"All Over the Guy" is a romantic comedy of wit and substance that Dan Bucatinsky and director Julie Davis have moved gracefully from stage to screen with a change of title and sexual orientation.

Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) is memorializing the end of a relationship as he has done all his others: with a visit to the STD clinic for an AIDS test. Tom (Richard Ruccolo) has recently become sober and faithfully attends an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Separately, they tell the story of their broken love affair that began with a chance meeting between their two respective best friends, Brett (Adam Goldberg) and Jackie (Sasha Alexander).

Jackie is shopping for furniture when she meets furniture designer Brett. And despite Brett's use of the word 'Buttercup' to describe the color of a love seat, he must convince Jackie that he is not homosexual. In an attempt to ignite their own romance, Brett and Jackie discuss their respective gay best friends, Eli and Tom, and decide to fix them up on a blind date.

These two men couldn't be from more different worlds. Eli, who edits "The Police Blotter" for a Los Angeles daily newspaper, was raised by relentlessly touchy-feely therapist parents who encouraged him at an early age to say 'penis' and 'vagina' at the dinner table. Tom, who is a special education teacher devoted to drinking, smoking and promiscuous sexual encounters, learned to mix a perfect martini at the age of 10. Their blind date is a disaster, filled with uncomfortable silences, vacuous small talk and one vitriolic rant about the movie IN & OUT. Despite a small spark of attraction by the end of the evening, both men are convinced that each hated the other.

The two run into each the next weekend at a local flea market where Tom is looking for a vintage martini set and Eli is on his never-ending quest for an original Cornelius action figure from Planet of the Apes. In this more casual environment, the two share a bit of their backgrounds and begin to connect. They have sex, but Eli is confused the next morning when Tom treats their intimacy as if it were a one-night stand.

Jackie and Brett, meanwhile, have become a couple in love. Tom and Eli continue to see each other, but Tom's "come here/go away" behavior keeps Eli constantly unsure of their feelings for each other. Eli is looking for this relationship to develop. Tom is seemingly looking for a way out. They decide to break things off.

Brett proposes to Jackie, who announces her pregnancy. Tom returns to his previous bad habits of excessive drinking and sleeping around. Eli turns to both his straight-talking sister (Christina Ricci) and overbearing parents (Andrea Martin & Tony Abatemarco), and decides that he will give up completely on love. Soon it becomes obvious to everyone but Tom and Eli that they are miserable apart. Late one night, Eli goes to Tom's apartment to leave him a letter explaining his feelings but spies Tom with a one-night stand. Neighbors call the police, and Eli is arrested for trespassing.

Tom and Eli are forced to get together in preparation for Jackie and Brett's wedding, yet the same problems remain between them. That night, Tom leaves a small gift on Eli's doorstep: an original Cornelius action figure from Planet of the Apes. For the first time, the two men come together to share a night of passion, honesty and love.

The next morning, Tom invites Eli to meet his parents (Joanna Kerns & Nicolas Surovy). They are a bitter, uncommunicative couple, and Eli soon learns the family's dark secret: Tom has a developmentally disabled younger sister, a never-discussed victim of his parents' alcoholism. In an explosion of pain and anger, Tom demands to be left alone and tells Eli to get - and stay - out of his life forever.

And so it ends. Eli finishes telling his tale to the clinic's salty receptionist (Doris Roberts), who shares with him an extraordinary lesson about the power of love. Meanwhile, at his AA meeting, Tom learns a different kind of lesson about the risks of lust.

The day of the wedding arrives and despite simultaneous pep-talks by Jackie and Brett, Eli (the Best Man) and Tom (The Man of Honor) do their best to ignore each other. Eventually, Eli confronts Tom on his history of self-hate and emotional repression. Tom lambastes Eli on his idealized and unrealistic view of relationships. When the dust settles, the two are able to speak honestly for the first time about their true fears and feelings. It is a final surrender, and the two are able to share in the joy of their best friends' love …as well as their own.

- 3 stars (out of 4)