Featured DVD Review: The Good Guy

June 20, 2010

The Good Guy - Buy from Amazon

The Good Guy is the debut film for writer/director Julio DePietro. It stars more than a few recognizable faces, but it struggled to win over critics, while it never found an audience during its short theatrical release. Now that it is coming out on DVD, will it finally be discovered, or will this be an uneventful end to its run?

The film starts with Tommy running up to the apartment of his girlfriend, Beth, after he was locked out of his apartment. However, she's with another man.

We then flashback a few weeks and Tommy tells use what events led up to this.

Tommy is a rising star at his trading firm, while Beth is an urban conservationist working to help preserve the architectural heritage of New York City. They are about to embark on a trip to Italy, when funding cutbacks at her job cancel that trip. However, she is offered a promotion... in San Francisco. So they are both moving up in their jobs. Into this picture enters Daniel, a co-worker of Tommy's who is little more than a gofer / IT man and not a trader like the rest of the Alpha-Male wolfpack he hangs with. After a fellow trader jumps ship to a competing company, Tommy decides to promote Daniel on the spot, a promotion Tommy's boss, Cash, thinks might be a poor decision. (In fact, Daniel shares this assessment.) However, Tommy takes Daniel under his wing and helps him figure out the rules at work, and helps him figure out women, so that Daniel can ask out the woman he's interested in. A woman he met while she was returning a book on Italy... yes, the big twist here is that Tommy is helping Daniel steal away his girlfriend.

It's not much of a twist. But is it enough to save the movie?

Not really. On the positive side, there are some good actors and some fun scenes. For instance, Anna Chlumsky plays Lisa, who discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her, so Beth and her other friend, Jordan (Jessalyn Wanlim) rush over to console her and try and convince her to get right back into the dating scene. So far this is right from every Chick Flick writers manual. However, their methods are novel (they trick her into having a fake bachlorette party to attract a guy) while Anna has more than enough charm to pull it off. In fact, as a general rule, it's the side characters that are the best part of the movie.

I'm not insulting the main cast, but Tommy and Daniel don't feel real. For instance, Daniel is shy around women, not because that seems organic to the nature of his character, but because that's what the script needs him to be. Meanwhile, Beth is very similar to Rory from The Gilmore Girls, the character Alexis Bledel is most famous for playing. She plays the role well, but I would like to see her stretch herself more.

The Good Guy isn't terrible, but it never climbs above mediocre either. Had it gone for more Rom Com Charm and less Relationship Drama, the film probably would have worked more. Or at the very least, it would have benefited from the lowered expectations brought on by its genre.

There is only one extra on the DVD: an audio commentary with Julio DePietro and Alexis Bledel. They move the track forward, presenting more than enough information to never get dry, but it is not one of the more energetic tracks I've listened to.

The Verdict

The Good Guy is a good first effort by Julio DePietro, but it is never 100% successful. The DVD isn't loaded with extras, but given its meager theatrical run, I won't not have been surprised if there were none. Add it up and you get a rental.


- Submitted by:

Filed under: Video Review, The Good Guy