The Good Guy: Definitely Not

Starring: Alexis Bledel, Scott Porter, Bryan Greenburg
Category: Drama
How would you market a movie about something that everybody hates? Find that redeeming quality and shine a light on it, darkening everything else? Focus on an angle that would make it appeal to the widest audience to get the most number of people through the door on opening day?
This movie is hard to like because it is about stockbrokers and the lives that they lead. It is harder to like because it came out after the crash of the market. What made it almost impossible to like is that it is about the type of people who would give themselves bonuses after being bailed out by the government because of a problem they created. Even if the movie was partly true, it would have made people upset. Problem is, it probably just scratched the surface because it focused on the traders lives, which are extravagant themselves, rather than their bosses.
Beth (Alexis Bledel) is in a relationship with Tommy, an experienced stockbroker. She is introduced to Daniel, an up and coming broker who Tommy has decided to take under his wing. Tommy wants Daniel to be one of the guys. Why? Maybe he saw a part of himself in Daniel. And wants to beat that part of out him.
Needless to say that the movie is really about Tommy. It begins with a seemingly heartfelt moment when he goes and begs for Beth. We then get to see the events leading to that moment. Needless to say, it is not what it seems to be. Tommy begins the movie as the Good Guy. He seems like it. He is nice to Beth. He vouches for Daniel. But he has an agenda. To understand what Daniel wants to be, you have to look at Cash, Tommy's boss and idol. He is on his way to becoming Cash.
The other characters were largely supporting and stereotypical. I will admit I watched this because of Alexis Bledel. Anna Chlumsky of My Girl is in it too. The movie tries hard to be one of those selling New York as a great place to live and work. What made the movie worst is that it literally shows us that New York is a great place to live and work if you got the cash. Which was Tommy's problem at the beginning/end of the movie.

This movie is in between a rock and a hard place. If you like stockbrokers, this movie shows the worst of them for what they are. It is not apologetic of their lifestyle. If you hated stockbrokers, this movies shows the gilded, shallow life they lead built on the the various fees and charges them impose on us to ruin ourselves.
It works as a drama. If it had come out a year before, it would have made tracks. The leads are well acted and are very real people. It does not glamorized Beth's existence, evident from her apartment. But since the movie is about Tommy and the road that he takes, the economy being what it is, it becomes an indictment of the people that led us to this Great Depression.
So how do you sell a movie about people nobody likes? The movie blurb tries trick No1: Find that redeeming quality and shine a light on it. It tells us that the movie is Beth's story. Which is not what it is. Yes, Beth and Daniel make a connection but it almost seems to be a subplot. She is a player but not the driver. The trailer tries trick No 2: Focus on an angle that would make it appeal to the widest audience to get the most number of people through the door on opening day. Watching the trailer would make you think that it was a romantic movie, a light romantic comedy with an uplifting ending. Not even close.