-By Doris Toumarkine
For movie details, please click here.
The Wall Street/Upper East Side axis traveled by today’s (really
2008’s) bright young things provides the playing field for
writer-director Julio DePietro’s impressive debut,
The Good
Guy. Suggesting
Metropolitan meets
Boiler Room, the film has attractive
Metropolitan-like upwardly mobile urbanites but without the
Boiler Room cynicism and energy that gave that film its
originality and edge. But maybe a nostalgic whiff of recent
financial high times is a good thing, even if not quite the hedge
needed against what looms as a long-shot theatrical bet.
DePietro, who worked in investment, wisely writes about what he
knows. The film kicks off in flashback as disheveled hero Tommy
(Scott Porter), escaping from a nocturnal downpour and a bad
situation, begs for help in the doorway of estranged girlfriend
Beth (Alexis Bledel). But she’s otherwise engaged with an
unidentified other and turns pathetic Tommy away.
Jump to months earlier as Tommy and Beth are beginning a serious
relationship. She’s an art curator on the verge of an interesting
job switch at a time when jobs easily changed. Tommy’s a Wall
Street comer. He shines on a frenetic trade floor as a hotshot bank
investment sales guy capable of pitting hedge fund and mutual fund
managers against one another for shares in his clients’
companies.
Tommy worships at the feet of boss Cash (Andrew McCarthy), his
all-knowing, wise-ass boss who is a master of the game. When Cash
learns that a co-worker is jumping to another job, he orders Tommy
to quickly find a replacement. His unlikely choice is Daniel (Bryan
Greenberg), the soft-spoken computer whiz kid of the sales floor.
Cash has doubts, but Tommy assures he’ll break him in.
Tommy manages to turn his creation into a salesman who can look and
play the part. In an unbelievably coincidental meet-cute in a
bookstore line, Daniel also begins a friendship with Beth that goes
where we expect as Tommy lets his partying and womanizing get the
better of him.
The film is helped by supporting players like Colin Egglesfield and
Anna Chlumsky as smart, upwardly mobile pals caught up in a culture
awash in money, sex, greed, and a need to succeed.
Like its characters,
The Good Guy is sharp, fun and pleasant
to behold, and its recreational, apartment and workplace locales
are appropriately slick and showy. The film’s most curious flaw is
the depiction of Daniel early on as a shy geek who goes all wussy
when talking to girls. Hey, the guy is a hunky ex-Marine who went
to Princeton. Such vulnerability should have been his diabolical
ruse, not a personality trait.
Conceived and filmed before the economic mess,
The Good Guy,
which might be filed under romantic drama/historical, does pose one
provocative question: How much of its carefree, free-spending world
still exists today?
Film Review: The Good Guy
Handsome, well-done if too familiar look at the romantic and professional games played by upscale 20-something Manhattan professionals working pre-Recession glam corners of art and finance.
Feb 18, 2010
-By Doris Toumarkine
For movie details, please click here.
The Wall Street/Upper East Side axis traveled by today’s (really 2008’s) bright young things provides the playing field for writer-director Julio DePietro’s impressive debut,
The Good Guy. Suggesting
Metropolitan meets
Boiler Room, the film has attractive
Metropolitan-like upwardly mobile urbanites but without the
Boiler Room cynicism and energy that gave that film its originality and edge. But maybe a nostalgic whiff of recent financial high times is a good thing, even if not quite the hedge needed against what looms as a long-shot theatrical bet.
DePietro, who worked in investment, wisely writes about what he knows. The film kicks off in flashback as disheveled hero Tommy (Scott Porter), escaping from a nocturnal downpour and a bad situation, begs for help in the doorway of estranged girlfriend Beth (Alexis Bledel). But she’s otherwise engaged with an unidentified other and turns pathetic Tommy away.
Jump to months earlier as Tommy and Beth are beginning a serious relationship. She’s an art curator on the verge of an interesting job switch at a time when jobs easily changed. Tommy’s a Wall Street comer. He shines on a frenetic trade floor as a hotshot bank investment sales guy capable of pitting hedge fund and mutual fund managers against one another for shares in his clients’ companies.
Tommy worships at the feet of boss Cash (Andrew McCarthy), his all-knowing, wise-ass boss who is a master of the game. When Cash learns that a co-worker is jumping to another job, he orders Tommy to quickly find a replacement. His unlikely choice is Daniel (Bryan Greenberg), the soft-spoken computer whiz kid of the sales floor. Cash has doubts, but Tommy assures he’ll break him in.
Tommy manages to turn his creation into a salesman who can look and play the part. In an unbelievably coincidental meet-cute in a bookstore line, Daniel also begins a friendship with Beth that goes where we expect as Tommy lets his partying and womanizing get the better of him.
The film is helped by supporting players like Colin Egglesfield and Anna Chlumsky as smart, upwardly mobile pals caught up in a culture awash in money, sex, greed, and a need to succeed.
Like its characters,
The Good Guy is sharp, fun and pleasant to behold, and its recreational, apartment and workplace locales are appropriately slick and showy. The film’s most curious flaw is the depiction of Daniel early on as a shy geek who goes all wussy when talking to girls. Hey, the guy is a hunky ex-Marine who went to Princeton. Such vulnerability should have been his diabolical ruse, not a personality trait.
Conceived and filmed before the economic mess,
The Good Guy, which might be filed under romantic drama/historical, does pose one provocative question: How much of its carefree, free-spending world still exists today?
