The Good Guy

The Good Guy stars Alexis Bledel, who is synonymous with "girly". Having a long successful run on Gilmore Girls and starring in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants it's hard to imagine her starring in a non-chick flick. Of course if Adam Sandler can do "drama", then I wouldn't put it past her. Anyhow, although Alexis dominates half of the movie poster I'd say the movie was less than half about her character, Beth. Beth serves as the center around which Tom (Scott Porter) and Daniel (Bryan Greenberg) are forced to orbit and eventually collide.

Tom is a Wall Street champ and Daniel becomes somewhat of a protégé. From fashion tips to stock tips they bond. In a book store, Daniel is coached – more like egged on – to approach a attractive girl, who turns out to be Tom's girlfriend, Beth. Bros before hos? What do you think? The movie has the typical clichés: A "book club", which serves as a female support slash male bashing group and a band of bar-hopping girl-hunting bros. You have your typical run-of-the-mill chick flick situations and resolutions. Not much surprise here. The only surprise is that this isn't much of a romantic comedy, so don't think "at least it might funny". It throws a decent jab, but doesn't finish with a right cross, a uppercut, or even a dirty kick to the groin.

Men: Go with low expectations and you won't hate it. Bro-Approved.

I've noticed here on IMDb when people review a movie they concentrate on the technicalities too much. which fine, but people like myself don't really care much for that.

Anyway, this movie is very enjoyable, especially if you relate to some of the situations mentioned in the movie. Like one of the comments said, don't even try to understand the wall street guys conversations lol.

Bryan Greenberg is awesome as he is in one tree hill, although here he plays a guy that doesn't even know how to say a single word to a girl (I think that's enjoyable in itself).

Long story short, I liked this movie. I give it 6/10.

I love Bryan Greenberg! His characters are always a breath of fresh air for me.

This could have been a much better romcom if they cut a bunch of those boring scenes at Wall Street and if they gave more scenes to Bryan Greenberg (Daniel) also at the beginning of the movie... Scott Porter's character (Tommy) was so not likable that it kinda ruined part of the movie for me.

Some characters were very stereotypical and I feel like some people could get offended by some of those racist jokes nowadays...

And what happened to the colors in the posters?! Those posters make it seem like such a low quality / independent kind of movie! It's the little things in life... Anyone with some photoshop skills could make a better job than that, come on!

Anyway Bryan (Daniel) and Alexis Bledel (Beth) saved the movie for me. Enjoyable romcom overall! I gave it a 7 because I found it a feel-good movie that I would be down to watch again! I might be biased because I love romcoms and I'm a fan of Bryan and Alexis though.

"The Good Guy" is a relationship drama. You would be forgiven if you assumed it was yet another twenty-something girl trying to sort out her love life and career in a romantic comedy. You would be forgiven for thinking that, but you would also be wrong. It's actually better than that.

The film is driven by three characters, all of them completely fleshed-out and three-dimensional. Not one of them is central, but all of them individually and triangularly. The film continuously surprises in very subtle ways. The characters are better written than first appears, and even when the film tells you the characters will surprise you, it still comes as a surprise.

I was expecting a film about Beth - a very standard, trying to find herself story. What makes it better than that is the fact that it's a drama - I am hard-pressed to name a similar film without comedy undertones or overtones. This is a drama - dark and sombre.

"The Good Guy" may not be for everybody but it is a good twenty-somethings relationship story told through drama instead of comedy. In the film, Beth complains about a novel that she read where half-way through the narrator turns out to be unreliable. "What's the point of that?" she asks. Daniel responds "Well isn't that life? It surprises you." Indeed it does. "The Good Guy" may be just like life, dramatic, and it surprises you.

Julio DePietro's 'The Good Guy' tries to combine the romantic genre and buddy flick genre. It does use a lot of clichés. The story is quite predictable in the first hour and then there are some interesting subtle twists that unfold well during the final half hour. I liked how the director mislead the viewer into thinking one thing while they turned out to be something else. I felt the ending was a copout and a little too convenient as I would have preferred something darker.

While the characters are well developed, they are clichéd, especially the Daniel character who happens to be the ideal guy (his favourite book is 'Pride and Prejudice', he was in the army but he is gentle, soft-spoken, shy and kind of a pushover etc). The luminous Alexis Bledel is terrific in a role she's familiar with. Although I would like to see her play different characters in her forthcoming movies. Scott Porter is average and Bryan Greenburg is adequate. Anna Chlumsky is wasted.

'The Good Guy' could have benefited more had the clichés been reduced and the story been more layered, complex and dark. It isn't your average date movie as it would appear to be but it's better than that.