The Good Guy - a pretty good romance movie

March 27, 2024. Some updates on March 15, 2025.

Rating: 2/5*.

The Good Guy is a low-budget 2009 romance movie about two men - Tommy (played by Scott Porter) and Daniel (Bryan Greenberg) - sort of vying for a woman, Beth. Tommy is a sales director at a Wall Street firm where Daniel is a low-level staffer assigned errand-boy and IT support tasks. Beth is an "urban conservationist" or some such who's in the early stages of a relationship with Tommy. Complications arise when Daniel runs into her and they eventually develop feelings for each other. In the meanwhile, the outwardly charming Tommy is gradually exposed as a degenerate and manipulative player.

As a romance movie, it's a bit different in that it doesn't feel like it's made for women.

Daniel comes across as the kind of guy that many men wish women would like but probably don't. If anything, the sweet and good-hearted Daniel seems like someone headed straight to the friend zone.

Beth also seems more like a character made to appeal to men than to women. She's pretty but not a sexpot, ambitious but not abrasive, and generally just seems pleasant to be around, but without being a pushover. She is a far cry from the Strong Independent Woman character that is typical in today's movies (and presumably appeals to women).

An interesting aspect of the movie is the portrayal of the Wall Street firm where Tommy and Daniel work.

The Good Guy was made years before movies like The Big Short, Margin Call, and Wolf of Wall Street, yet contains themes and scenes reminiscent of those movies. The Good Guy was probably influenced by movies like Wall Street, Boiler Room, and 25th Hour.

It was probably also informed by the movie's writer and director Julio DePietro worked in finance for several years before rather boldly entering a career in movie making. In 2023 he became the Chief Executive Officer of Major League Pickleball. That's quite the career.

The storytelling is undermined by an opening flashforward scene followed by a voiceover by Tommy. Unnecessary. The voiceover briefly pops up later in the movie instead of just showing the event that the voiceover describes. Maybe it was the outrageous success of the awful HBO show Sex and the City that convinced directors of that era that voiceover is a great storytelling device for the audio visual arts.

On the plus side, the narrative subtly shifts from Tommy and his underlings at the firm to Beth and Daniel as the movie progresses.

Should you watch The Good Guy? Yes. It's a pretty good little movie and Alexis Bledel does a good Beth.

*It's as close to a 3 I can get without actually landing on a 3. I might even change my mind at some point and make it a 3.