The Good Guy is a new film from Roadside Attractions and director Julio DePietro about a young, seemingly-perfect couple living the big city life. The movie debuted last year at the Tribeca Film Festival and follows Beth (Alexis Bledel), a sweet and beautiful young woman with a good job and a great group of friends in New York City. Beth has been seeing Tommy (Scott Porter), a Wall Street hot shot, for a few months now, and all seems to be going very well with the couple who are preparing to head to Italy on a business/vacation trip. At first the pair appear to be living the modern day fairy tale life, but when Beth meets Daniel (Bryan Greenberg) — who just happens to be the new member of Tommy's team at work — she begins wondering if she's where she wants to be. Tommy has all those good looks females desire and a big money job, while Daniel shows her a new, much more sensitive side to the male species. This of course creates that age-old dilemma for women: do you go for all the looks and financial security, or do you want someone who "gets you"?
First of all: this isn't your little sister's romance movie. It's officially classified as a "romantic dramedy" and that sums it up quite well. The foundation is a love story, yes, but there's a surprising amount of good humor going on as well as some subtle drama. The comedy mainly comes from Tommy's co-workers, which includes actors Aaron Yoo and Andrew McCarthy — YES, Mannequin and Weekend at Bernie's Andrew McCarthy, and yes he's fantastic in this role as the unbearable and self-centered boss at the Wall Street firm. The banter between these gentlemen can be crude, but it's always funny, very entertaining, and a key factor in why I enjoyed this movie so much. Unlike most "romantic" flicks, this movie makes sure to add plenty of humor and content for the gentlemen audience, making the movie watchable by all. No longer do you have to be forced into stomaching movies like Failure to Launch — you just need to know the right alternates to suggest!
When I refer to the drama aspect as "subtle," it's because it doesn't push too hard in some sad attempt at acquiring awards consideration. The Good Guy handles its content very calmly, and the emotional ups and downs of the film are approached by the actors with a sort of natural ease, allowing it to move across your eyes freely with very minimal awkward moments.
Another thing that this movie does — that you may or may not enjoy — is not waste any time…at all. The editing is handled in quickfire fashion, and the movie moves from one point to the next without slow fade away shots or filler content. I appreciated this because we all know how fatal it can be for a movie to drag, and whether you ultimately enjoy this picture or not, you will never ever be able to say it was slow. This movie is 90 flat minutes of a realistically presented big city love story that gets right to each scene and tells the story that it wants to tell, and I really dug that. I will for sure be adding it to the short list of romantic films that I would gladly add to my movie collection.
