The Good Guy is a nicely crafted little movie. My wife and I both enjoyed it. The plot develops in a somewhat unpredictable way that leaves you very satisfied – I won’t give anything away. The pacing is good, the music is pretty good, the dialog is pretty good, and the film really captures the despicable dating scene among young male yuppies in Manhattan.

Alexis Bledel should use this film as a template for her ideal movie role.  She needs to avoid films like Post Grad, and instead find well-written movies that are ensemble pieces which have a nice “Rory Gilmore” role for her to hide in. The Good Guy is just such a movie, and she is quite effective in her role as the innocent young woman caught in a strange love triangle. Scott Porter (who was in two of my favorite music movies: Bandslam and Music & Lyrics) is just great in his role as the film’s central character. And Andrew McCarthy is wonderful in a bit part as Porter’s horrible (but completely believable) boss.

In the end, I think that The Good Guy is held back by the character of Daniel (and the performance of Bryan Greenberg.) The role is just not very well written, and Greenberg plays the character a bit too “country bumpkin in the big city” for me. I can’t see that nerd getting anywhere in the cut-throat world of trading, or even wanting to. I also didn’t believe for one second that he could not talk to women. I really wanted to like this character, and the film is strong enough in general that you do like him despite the writing and performance, but at the end of the day the subtle shortcomings of this character add up to the difference between a movie you might return to over-and-over and a nice little film that you enjoy once.

Anyway, all my nit-picking aside, I highly recommend that you check out this cool, well-made little film! It’s quite enjoyable.