The Good Guy

Julio DePietro's 'The Good Guy' tries to combine the romantic genre and buddy flick genre. It does use a lot of clichés. The story is quite predictable in the first hour and then there are some interesting subtle twists that unfold well during the final half hour. I liked how the director mislead the viewer into thinking one thing while they turned out to be something else. I felt the ending was a copout and a little too convenient as I would have preferred something darker.

While the characters are well developed, they are clichéd, especially the Daniel character who happens to be the ideal guy (his favourite book is 'Pride and Prejudice', he was in the army but he is gentle, soft-spoken, shy and kind of a pushover etc). The luminous Alexis Bledel is terrific in a role she's familiar with. Although I would like to see her play different characters in her forthcoming movies. Scott Porter is average and Bryan Greenburg is adequate. Anna Chlumsky is wasted.

'The Good Guy' could have benefited more had the clichés been reduced and the story been more layered, complex and dark. It isn't your average date movie as it would appear to be but it's better than that.