''The Good Guy'' is a 2009

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by Julio DePietro starring

Alexis Bledel Kimberly Alexis Bledel ( ; born September 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She is known for her role as Rory Gilmore on the television series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000–2007), and Emily Malek in ''The Handmaid's Tale'' (2017–2021). ...

Scott Porter Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saskat ...

, and

Bryan Greenberg Bryan Greenberg (born May 24, 1978) is an American actor and singer, known for his starring role as Ben Epstein in the HBO original series ''How to Make It in America'' as well as a recurring role as Jake Jagielski in the WB series '' One Tree ...

. The story is a loose adaptation of

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals '' The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...

's 1915 novel ''

The Good Soldier ''The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion'' is a 1915 novel by the British writer Ford Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I, and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham and his seemingly perfect marriage, along with that of his two A ...

'', which is referenced several times in the film's plot.

Plot

Tommy Fielding is young, clever, charming, and attractive. He has got a smart, beautiful girlfriend, Beth, a young Manhattanite and urban conservationist. He's also very good at his investment broker job, impressing his ruthless, cynical boss, Cash. When a key member of Tommy's sales team suddenly leaves for a competitor, Tommy needs to fill his spot quickly, and takes a chance on the bumbling Daniel, a former avionics engineer and computer geek who seems a bit naïve about high finance and a bit nervous around women. Tommy takes Daniel under his wing, showing him how to dress, where to socialize, and how to charm attractive women. Their relationship is threatened when Daniel begins spending more time with Beth, joining her book club, and becoming her confidant. Tommy begins to question his decision to share his wisdom with Daniel, while Daniel is forced to decide what success really means to him, and where his loyalties lie in life.

Cast

as Beth Vest *

as Tommy Fielding *

as Daniel Seaver * Anna Chlumsky as Lisa *

Andrew McCarthy Andrew Thomas McCarthy (born November 29, 1962) is an American actor, travel writer, and television director. He is most known as a member of the Brat Pack, with roles in 1980s films such as ''St. Elmo's Fire'', ''Pretty in Pink'', and '' Less ...

as Cash *

Aaron Yoo Aaron Yoo (born May 12, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for appearing in the films '' Disturbia'' (2007), '' 21'' (2008), and ''Friday the 13th'' (2009), as well as playing Russell Kwon in the sci-fi series ''The Tomorrow People'' ( ...

as Steve-O * Andrew Stewart-Jones as Shakespeare * Denise Vasi as Suki *

Jessalyn Wanlim Jessalyn Wanlim (born September 3, 1982) is a Canadian-American actress and model. She played Evie Cho on the science fiction television series '' Orphan Black'', as well as Jenny Matthews on the sitcom ''Workin' Moms''. She had a recurring role ...

as Jordan * Eric Thal as Stephens * Kate Nauta as Cynthia *

Colin Egglesfield Colin Egglesfield (born February 9, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Josh Madden in the long-running soap opera '' All My Children'', Auggie Kirkpatrick on The CW's short-lived drama series '' Melrose Place'', and Evan Par ...

as Baker * Adam LeFevre as Billy * Jackie Stewart as Sofia * Monica Steuer as Florist * Darrin Baker as Bobby * Adrian Martinez as Larry

Soundtracks

* The Helio Sequence - Lately *

Let's Go Sailing Let’s Go Sailing are an American indie band founded by Shana Levy in 2002. After several years of work, the group completed their first album in 2006 and released it nationally in 2007. In addition to releasing one studio album and touring, mult ...

- Sideways * Sam Champion - Like a Secret *

White Denim White Denim is an American four-piece rock band from Austin, Texas, United States. Their music is influenced by dub, psychedelic rock, blues, punk rock, progressive rock, soul, jazz, experimental rock with home-based recording, jamming appro ...

- Let's Talk About It *

Born Ruffians Born Ruffians are a Canadian indie rock band based in Toronto. Officially founded in 2004 in the Georgian Bay town of Midland, Ontario, the band is composed of frontman Luke Lalonde, bassist Mitch DeRosier, and drummer Steve Hamelin. During the ...

- I Need a Life * Atmosphere - Party Over Here * Wang Chung -

Everybody Have Fun Tonight "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" is a song by English new wave band Wang Chung, released as a single from their studio album ''Mosaic'' in 1986. Collaboratively written by Jack Hues, Nick Feldman, and Peter Wolf, it reached no. 2 on the US ''Bi ...

* The Helio Sequence - Don't Look Away *

The Cliks ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

- Oh Yeah *

Ra Ra Riot Ra Ra Riot is an American indie rock band consisting of vocalist Wes Miles, bassist Mathieu Santos, guitarist Milo Bonacci, violinist Rebecca Zeller and drummer Kenny Bernard. History Ra Ra Riot formed in January 2006, playing at houses and ven ...

- Can You Tell *

Plushgun Plushgun is an American indie rock/New wave music, new wave/synthpop band founded by Dan Ingala located in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, United States. The current lineup of the band is Ingala, Taylor Armstrong on guitar and Matt Bogdanow on dr ...

- Just Impolite * Mancino - Lavender Lake * Copperpot - The Art of Rap * Sam Champion - Be Mine Everyone *

Rachel Platten Rachel Ashley Platten (born May 20, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and author. After releasing two albums independently in 2003 and 2011, she signed with Columbia Records in 2015 and released her mainstream debut single, "Fight Song", w ...

- Seven Weeks *

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

Your Ex-Lover Is Dead Your Ex-Lover Is Dead was the sixth single released by the Canadian indie pop group Stars. It is the opening track on their album '' Set Yourself on Fire''. The track begins with the voice of lead singer Torquil's father Douglas Campbell saying ...

* Say Hi - Hallie and Henry

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 35% based on reviews from 26 critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 47% based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert of the

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

gave it 3 out of 4 and wrote: "It has smart characters, and is wise about the ones who try to tame their intelligence by acting out." Andrew Barker of

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

wrote, that "Lacking much of a satirical bite, the pic's quasi-celebration of crude laddishness becomes oppressive."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Good Guy 2009 films American romantic comedy films 2009 romantic comedy films Films scored by Tomandandy 2000s English-language films 2000s American films