"All Over the Guy" is a romantic comedy with enough drama to make it an engrossing film. It is about an adorable yet nerdy, neurotic, perfectionist, named Eli (Dan Bucatinsky), and his search for "the one" person to spend the rest of his life with. It is easy to see why he is high-strung. Eli has over-protective Jewish parents, who are not only shrinks, but they psychoanalyze his every feeling.
Tom (Richard Ruccolo) is a promiscuous, self-hating, recovering alcoholic, who fears commitment, especially when he likes a person-or worse-the person likes him. He goes back to Alcoholics Anonymous when he falls off the wagon; he claims the trigger as being "all over this guy." At AA, Tom vows to quit drinking-and guys-because he cannot be trusted with either. Tom was raised by uncaring, bickering, alcoholic parents, who fostered his fear of intimacy. When you meet his parents at their country club you understand why Tom is the way he is. Richard Ruccolo is irresistible as Tom.
Jackie (Sasha Alexander) is Tom's best friend. She meets a guy named Brett (Adam Goldberg), who works at a furniture store, and immediately falls for him. She finds out Brett has a gay friend, Eli, and since she has a gay friend, Tom, she devises a way to get a date with Brett by fixing their two friends up. Jackie and Brett arrange for Eli and Tom to go on a blind date while they cement their own relationship.
Eli and Tom's blind date was awkward and both men decide it was a disaster. Then, they run into one another at a flea market and feelings begin to stir. They have a quick fling, cheapened by Tom claiming it was a mistake. Eli didn't know what to make of it. Every time Eli thinks Tom is letting him in-Tom backs away because of fear. Tom tells another member of AA the story about his rocky relationship with Eli. The person turns out not to be his ally.
Eli meets a receptionist at an STD Testing Clinic, Esther, played by the hilarious Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond), and tells her the whole story about Tom and him, while waiting to be tested for HIV. Doris Roberts does not disappoint as the yenta (busybody) who gets Eli to open up and share his feelings.
Eli's parents (Andrea Martin and Tony Abatemarco), as liberal therapists, are hysterical. Dr. Wyckoff, Eli's mother, is the epitome of the smothering, meddling, Jewish mother who drives her son crazy. She gives him neurosis he probably wouldn't have had, had she not gotten her PhD in order to use her "expertise" on him.
Lisa Kudrow plays a perfect airhead, Marie, in a cameo performance, as an actor trying, and barely succeeding, to make a radio commercial. Christina Ricci plays Eli's sister, Rayna, who is a nice addition to the ensemble.
"All Over the Guy" is about the trials and tribulations of relationships and love. It is a funny, delightful, double date, which is positively yummy. The movie mixes comedy with drama. I have seen All Over the Guy several times and it cracks me up every time. It is such a feel good movie you want to feel good repeatedly. This movie includes an incredible cast, good music, likeable characters, an interesting story line, and a witty screenplay, written by Dan Bucatinsky. These fine elements all come together to make this an incredible movie.
