The Good Guy

"The Good Guy", write and directed by Julio DePietro, tells the story of a young Wall Street mogul dating a beautiful bookworm and mentoring a naïve veteran trying to make it in New York. The movie is narrated by the main character Tommy, played by Scott Porter ("Friday Night Lights", "Heart of Dixie"). Beth, his girlfriend, is played by Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls") and Daniel the trainee is played by Bryan Greenberg ("Friends With Benefits"). 

The Good Guy (2009)

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 The beauty of indie films is that they are not strong-armed by studios to tell a certain type of story...the typical romantic comedy is in play here but there is a refreshing twist. Audiences are used to the narrator serving as their channel into the story, but what happens when the narrator is not worthy of their trust? As soon as the movie opens, Tommy begins feeding the audience a sob-story, telling the tale of himself and Beth as he wants it to be known. It is soon revealed that Tommy is full of it.

Tommy claims to want a relationship and to be a good friend to Daniel and to keep Daniel on his team at work. This initially is believable, as Tommy takes Daniel shopping and fights his boss (played by Andrew McCarthy!) to keep Daniel at his job. Soon after, Daniel and Beth meet and Daniel joins her book club. As soon as any suspicion of Beth and Daniel canoodling arises, Tommy loses it. As soon as Tommy realizes someone else can get her, he wants her even more.

While I was drawn in by Scott Porter, the wheelchair-bound Jason Street from Friday Night Lights, who I loved for all five seasons, I was very quick to forget this history as soon as questionable behaviors were displayed. Even without the spin he puts on EVERY shady action, he is a Wall Street man of course, the suspicion that he is a scumbag is proven within the first 20 minutes.

The hook this movie has is genius - what do you do when you can't trust the narrator? How do we cope when our deepest and most accessible insight into the story is completely delusional? These are questions that I have never been faced with until I saw this movie. 

DePietro's story could have been that much better if viewers were not completely sure of Tommy's playboy habits from the beginning. Suspicion can drive a movie and in my opinion, this is a missed opportunity. Imagine someone watching a movie and trusting a narrator...and then realizing that nothing that person said was valid. You were duped. Now that is enticing.

 "The Good Guy" Trailer