Movie Review: The Good Guy

Let me start off by saying that this movie has been given a bad synopsis on IMDb.  With that being said, let me be a bit more accurate about the premise.

Tommy Fielding (Scott Porter) is a Wall Street hustler.  Under the tutelage of his boss, Cash (Andrew McCarthy), Tommy feels the pressure to be self-confident, aggressive, and independent.  Unfortunately, juggling several issues all at once is starting to get the best of his judgement.  His best man, Baker (Colin Egglesfield), just left for the competitor, his girlfriend, Beth (Alexis Bledel), still has to give him some horizontal mambo despite dating for 3 months, and newbie IT guy, Daniel (Bryan Greenberg), needs to be trained into superstud so he does not embarrass the Wall Street cool guys.  Resolution is what he has to deliver, and that's the crux of his problem.

So, does that sound anywhere close to the IMDb synopsis? Good. Now, let's get into this review going.

The Good

Courtesy of Belladona Productions/Whitest Pouring Films 

Tommy is a good bad guy.  Slimy does not do him justice.  Just when you thought he was a really good guy, he twists things around and being sympathetic toward him is wasted.  If you look up shallow in the dictionary, I think his face is plastered next to the term.

Anna Chlumsky as Beth's girlfriend, Lisa, was cute.  She was likable, understated, but appealing.  If I were to be a Manhattanite, I would want her to be my BFF.

The soundtrack is also good.  There isn't a soundtrack in album form to be purchased but it has the effect The Last Kiss has in its movie.  Two thumbs up.

The Bad

Alexis Bledel as Beth is... not good.  I feel that her acting chops are limited to her short stint as Rory Gilmore.  Unfortunately, that showed.  I don't know if her acting was fully her fault, or if the writers had a Rory Gilmore in mind and just put her into that traditional role.  Either way, I was tired of the act. Cripes, the book club thing screamed Gilmore Girls!  They might as well have thrown in Lane.  Oh yeah, they did...

Her name is Sofia (Jackie Stewart) and she was annoying.  From the grating voice to the lesbian (or anti-men) overture was just too much for the movie.  It's okay to call men cads, but it's overkill when you have to point out the obvious.

Bryan Greenberg as Daniel was also bad.  I don't know if he was suffering the same writing fate as Bledel's character had, but Daniel was shallow.  He was paralyzingly awkward that I felt like he needed to be euthanized to save him from this role.

The Ugly

Courtesy of Belladona Productions/Whitest Pouring Films

Oh where to start? I guess the "girl bonding" scenes are awfully cliched.  From book clubs to girls night-outs, including a mass bikini/brazilian waxing get together?  I don't know about you guys, but no matter how chummy I get with my girl friends, knowing how "bushy" they are down there isn't part of my getting-to-know-you list.

The cliched "playa" amongst the men. Again, if you want to portray men as cads, dig a little deeper than this card.  Bodily noises, scents, hygiene... here are topics to help offend the female populace.  Moving on...

The appearance of Wall Street the guys are leading on.  Let's put it this way: I bought Pacey Witter as a Wall Street baller when he didn't have a college class or degree under his belt.  How's that for comparison?

The ending.  The movie is about come-uppance and a bit about the parable of the hare and the tortoise, but none of these really resonate because the people that "win" in the end are so boring, I would have thought that watching paint dry was more interesting.  As far as the just desserts? The character doesn't learn a damned thing.

Stale Popcorn Rating: Free rental or TV viewing.  Again, the narrator of the story is good, and if you like music, you'll like the way it flowed throughout the movie.  The awww-shucks moments are few, not enough to leave you dewy-eyed, but it won't feel like a waste of time if you had it on while cleaning the house or doing another chore.