All About Steve is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Phil Traill and starring Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, and Bradley Cooper. Ken Jeong, DJ Qualls, Katy Mixon, Beth Grant, Howard Hesseman and Keith David play supporting roles.
Mary Horowitz (Bullock) is a proud cruciverbalist (writer of Crossword Puzzle) for the Sacramento Herald newspaper, and a very awkward young woman. Her parents set her up for a date with the eponymous Steve (Cooper), a local newspaper cameraman, and she is smitten. After driving him off with her overly-aggressive sexual advances, and subsequently losing her job in a crossword incident, Mary decides that Steve is her destiny and begins following him as he pursues the news.
This film demonstrates the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Mary very quickly becomes this to Steve.
- Bannister Slide: Mary attempts one after she reaches her Steve epiphany, but slows to a painful halt due to too much friction.
- Blind Date: A Blind Date arranged between Mary and Steve kicks off the main plot.
- Butt-Monkey: Angus (Jeong) is this to the news crew, the butt of their jokes and general gopher.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Mary is very enthusiastic, and tends to forget what's in her way as she pursues Steve.
- Da Editor: Corbitt (David) is the owner of the TV Station that the news team is working for. He threatens to fire them multiple times as he gives his assignments.
- Didn't Think This Through: If you're working for a big important news paper, and you send them a crossword puzzle that's unprofessionally all about a man nobody else has heard of, chances are you're going to get fired. Just ask Mary.
- Dissonant Serenity: After some advice from Hughes, Mary tries a calmer approach towards Steve. He mistakes her new-found calm for this trope.
- Genki Girl: Mary hits all the stops, the rapid speech, the unrelenting cheerfulness, flailing arms when she gets excited...
- The Glomp: Mary performs a textbook example on Steve at the hospital, a flying tackle which just barely avoids knocking him over.
- Heel Realization: Hughes has this moment.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Korean Ken Jeong has dialogue indicating that he's Vietnamese although he also curses in Japanese and Mandarin during the movie.
- Rage Breaking Point: Angus can only put up with so much absurdity. But after putting up with Steve's paranoia and Hughes' ego, Angus finally blows up and calls the two out on what bugs him (respectively, Steve thinking Mary is a psycho and Hughes' excessive tanning).
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Mary is prone to this due to her job as a cruciverbalist, also sprinkling in gratuitous foreign languages
- Small Name, Big Ego: Hughes is convinced that he's the next big thing in the news.
- Stalker with a Crush: Mary is an unusual female example.
- Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: Hughes (Church) finds the situation hilarious and encourages Mary every chance he gets. Steve is terrified, and convinced that Mary wants to skin him and wear him as a suit. Mary is largely oblivious that her behavior might be considered stalking.
- Title Drop: After the first date, Mary releases a crossword puzzle entitled "All About Steve" where every answer is some aspect of Steve.
- Was It Really Worth It?: Later in the movie, Mary comes to realize that, no, chasing Steve down was not worth losing her job or leaving behind her family or her home. Not one mile she's chased Steve has brought her closer to being his girlfriend than it has brought her to being his stalker.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Played with. While Mary is stalking Steve, the latter mistakenly believes he's in a thriller movie, and that Mary is a psycho who will do horrible things to him if she catches him. In reality, Mary's just an overly zealous girl.
