Le Fiancé Idéal

"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.

Was this movie made in 1985? And shouldn't it star Molly Ringwald?

Though set in the present day world of hip, young urbanites, "The Good Guy" is the movie John Hughes might have made if he'd moved his stories of teen angst out of the Chicago suburbs and into the middle of Manhattan. O.k., so the kids in this film are at least five or so years out of their teens, but the kids who starred as the teens in Hughes' films weren't really teens either, so the comparison stands.

Alexis Bledel basically plays Rory Gilmore, picking up her story where the T.V. series "The Gilmore Girls" left off. She's a conscientious young do-gooder with some kind of job having to do with conservation. Her boyfriend is a Wall Street hot shot who only cares about money. Enter Bryan Greenberg, playing the new guy on her boyfriend's team, who thinks he wants to be a Wall Street shark but is far too sensitive and quiet to make it. We know he's meant to be with Bledel, because his favorite book is "Pride and Prejudice" and he's awkward with girls.

"The Good Guy" is almost hopelessly young and hits its notes with all the subtlety of an episode of "Melrose Place." But it has a great message to relate about life priorities, and I found it refreshing for once to find a movie in which the character of the old (32) married guy is the happiest character in the film.

My wife and I did a lot of chuckling at "The Good Guy," but I admit that it won me over. And one wonders if the makers of this movie weren't more aware than I'm giving them credit for of how much it plays like an '80s teeny-bopper film, because there's good old Andrew McCarthy, not playing the dreamy heroes he used to, but rather a foul-mouthed obnoxious boss.

Grade: B+

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.

Screenwriters of a certain age think a stockbroker can make a cold call to a rich/poor person on the phone and they will sell them massive amounts of stock by pressuring them to buy now. That really doesn't happen.

It is true that this is only a muguffin to set up the three way romance. Still, the premise is so silly...They might as well be scientist trying to cure hiccups or philosophers fighting over the meaning of existence...or farmers growing the perfect ear of corn.

The basic premise is silly. That undermines the entire film. Nothing new happens in this very pedestrian film. A complete disappointment. The basic story has been done so many times before...and done so much better.