The Good Guy features young New York romances

The Good Guy, a film starring Alexis Bledel, Scott Porter and Bryan Greenberg, starts out with a scene that is sure to make you think Beth (Bledel) has dumped her boyfriend, Tommy (Porter) for someone else. There isn’t much explanation as to why, but as the movie is narrated by Porter’s character, it seems that he is the perfect guy and Beth has left him heartbroken.

The story jumps to a few weeks before this scene to show the audience how Beth and Tommy ended up there. The New Yorkers are two months into a relationship and are mostly happy with one another, but things start to get a little complicated when Tommy’s co-worker, Daniel (Greenberg), falls in love with Beth.

Tommy, who has been coaching Daniel on how to pick up girls, never thinks that Daniel might use these skills to hit on his girlfriend. These scenes, in which Tommy and his Wall Street co-workers teach Daniel how to talk to women and dress like they do, play out much like the makeover scenes in a teen-girl comedy (e.g., when Cher and Dionne makeover Tai to be just like them in Clueless).

Other jokes throughout the movie seem a little clichéd, but overall the twist ending puts the film on a higher level than other romantic comedies of its kind. The Good Guy is definitely a step up for Bledel, who’s recent film Post-Grad scored a pathetic eight percent on movie review Web site, Rottentomatoes.com.

For those who do enjoy a cheesy romance, however, the film definitely has plenty of that. Daniel, who explains to Beth that he hasn’t had a relationship since his ex-fiancé got pregnant by another man while he was overseas in the military, is very cautious and awkward about meeting girls. When he first talks to Beth, he is adorably tongue-tied and can’t seem to say the right thing.

Although the love triangle between Beth, Tommy and Daniel is the main plot of the movie, The Good Guy also portrays the lives of Wall Street stockbrokers. Daniel has just stepped up from an internship to a full-time position at Tommy’s firm and much of the film focuses on their relationship and the dynamics of the office.

While the jargon of Tommy’s office is hard to follow for those who have never taken a business course, it’s not hard to understand that he and his co-workers are complete assholes, save for Daniel, who seems to have only gotten into the field accidentally.

From Tommy’s boss, Cash (Andrew McCarthy), who is cheating on his wife with a 21-year-old, to his fellow brokers, Steve-O (Aaron Yoo) and Shakespeare (Andrew Stewart-Jones), it seems these actors are great at playing men obsessed with money and getting ahead.

McCarthy, who always seemed to play “the good guy” himself in 1980s “Brat Pack” movies, takes on a completely different role here and is either trying to show his range as an actor or that he has grown out of being too nice.

The love story seems to parallel the Wall Street aspect of the film, which is made more obvious towards the end of the film. Tommy seems to acknowledge this as the camera shows him looking out a window at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The great views of New York are another great part of the film. Along with a shot of the NYSE, there are scenes in Battery Park, Central Park, the Cloisters and along various streets on the Upper East Side, where the characters live.

Despite it’s somewhat cheesy premise of a girl (Bledel) looking for the perfect job, life and boyfriend in Manhattan, The Good Guy does have a little bit of something for everyone, even if it’s only the gorgeous cinematography. The film hits theaters Feb. 19.