i think by now everyone knows about “the list” – you know that list of five people that you’re allowed to sleep with if the opportunity arises, without destroying your “great monogamous relationship”? my boyfriend and i have had many (too many) conversations about our respective “lists”, which always turn into arguments if not full blown fights, what do you expect when you put Lindsay Lohan on your list (him, not me). blech! anyway, i never enjoyed much making my “list” because i found i was always more interested in the character an actor was playing than the actual actors themselves. for example: mark wahlberg…he could be a complete dick in real life and despite his obvious hotness i might not actually want to sleep with him, however, his character Tommy Corn in I Heart Huckabees? wild horses could not stop me from wanting THAT guy if we crossed paths (if he even existed – a minor point to my mind). so all this difficulty in trying to construct my “list” got me thinking about what my REAL dream list would be…i mean we’re talking fantasy here so why not go all the way?

so this brings us to my fetish for good guys…i’m not talking bad boys that are REALLY good guys deep down…i’m talking about dyed in the wool boy scouts. honorable hero types, they don’t have to be perfect, but they have to be good and they have to do things (even if they’re bad things) for heroic reasons. for me, bad guys are overrated, i’m just more into the quintessential modern day good guy and so the following is my list of the top ten (with three honorable mentions) good guy movie characaters over the past twenty years…

honorable mention: Boogie Night’s Buck Swope as portrayed by Don Cheadle (1997). Cheadle loses points here for most of the time being forced into bad 70’s (and 80’s) get ups and/or his character’s odd love of cowboy gear, but i am just so desperate for him to get his dream, to get out of porn and into his own electronic’s store. i just want to take care of him and help him get his damn store! when he falls for Jessie St. Vincent (Melora Walters) you just want him to get out all the more. he loves her so purely, especially considering they’re still both in porn…

honorable mention: The Station Agent’s Joe Oramas as portrayed by Bobby Cannavale (2003). it doesn’t hurt that Cannavale is extremely easy on the eyes, he only loses points for being a bit whiney and clingy, but so cute and sweet and honest and good that who would mind such a clingy little bit of goodness? the station agent is a great film, largely because of incredibly strong performances. Cannavale has you silently begging for Fin to be kind to Joe and when he finally lets him in it is so worth it.

honorable mention: The Departed’s William ‘Billy’ Costigan Jr. as portrayed by Leonardo Dicaprio (2006). Dicaprio could have soared to the top of this list if only he’d been given more screen time (which i don’t even wish for because the movie is brilliantly handled as is). Dicaprio’s Billy is heartbreaking. a good guy just trying to catch a break and get out of some horrible circumstances. i’m sure an argument could be made that he is the “bad guy with good guy deep down” but since all his bad guy ruse is forced upon him i believe him to be good on the surface and good to the bone, so good that he’ll embrace a horrible violent lifestyle and sacrifice himself and his happiness, all to do good. plus he is incredibly easy on the eyes here, which really doesn’t hurt. at all.

10. Swinger’s Mike ‘Mikey’ Peters as portrayed by Jon Favreau (1996). Favreau scores points here for looking incredibly gorgeous in a wife beater and holding his own next to Vaughn in the hotness category, while still being the good guy. i adore Vaughn (and wish he played more straight good guys so maybe he’d be on this list, but he’s too funny for that i suppose) but what woman on earth wouldn’t be more happy going home with Mikey than ‘T’ in this movie. Vaughn is that guy and that one night stand that you always regret a little bit and Mikey is that guy that you fell in love with that one time and who completely pined for you when it was over (as it should be). he slips a few places for being a bit TOO whiney for a girl we all know isn’t good enough for him, but he’s still oh so good at number 10. go Mikey go.

9. The Power of One’s P.K./Rainmaker as portrayed by Stephen Dorff (1992). Dorff kind of bothers me, he’s generally pretty cute, but i always have this feeling in his films that he’s just kind of an arrogant prick. an exception is his performance in this film, which seems genuine without being too over the top. the character is an absolute hero character, you are given no reason not to empathize with P.K. from first frame to last (and then they make him hot as well), but Dorff does a great job of inhabiting P.K. as a good guy that just doesn’t really believe the hype about himself. i fell in love when i first saw this as a teenager and when i catch it on cable now i can’t generally tear myself away, mostly because i still feel a bit in love with P.K., even if his girlfriend gets kind of brutally killed as a result of his actions (she wasn’t really worthy of him anyway).

8. Se7en’s Detective David Mills as portrayed by Brad Pitt (1995). Pitt nails this performance of a cocky not so smart hero cop in a crappy little world (pretty much not unlike the real one we all exist in). i’m a firm believer that Pitt is an excellent actor (12 Monkey’s, Spy Game, Babel, Se7en, Fight Club, Snatch, Sleepers – all solid) that gets a raw deal because he is so unbelievably attractive. he is at his most attractive (to me) here, playing the boyscout that kinda wishes he was a bad boy. you could make the bad boy argument here as well, but i stand by the idea that this is not a bad boy performance, just a cocky cop that is really trying to do the right thing. ultimately as we all know, he fails, but it is his great love that leads to his demise so i can’t judge him too harshly. i did mention he’s brutally hot, right?

7. Casualties Of War’s PFC Eriksson as portrayed by Michael J. Fox (1989). this performance kills me everytime. it was one of the first movies i ever cried my eyes out for like a little baby and its still true today if i pop in the dvd. Fox’s portrayal as Eriksson is heartbreaking. he’s young and beautiful in this, but it is really his amazing heart and character that shows through and makes him one of the quintessential modern good guys on film. if you haven’t seen this film i would highly recommend it, though it is not for the faint of heart, there is a brutal rape and a lot of other violence (it is about the Vietnam War), but Fox’s performance throughout reminds you that with all that evil in the world there has got to be some good hiding out, just waiting to overcome.

6. I Heart Huckabees’ Tommy Corn as portrayed by Mark Wahlberg (2004). Wahlberg steals the whole damn show in a movie full of people that could steal shows. he is absolutely the shining star of this film as a fireman (hello hero!) that loses his way after 9/11 when he realizes how much more there is to life and how difficult (impossible) it will be for him to save it. he has an existential crisis based on his newfound knowledge that tears his life and family apart. i have to mention that his crisis is un-good-guy in that it causes him to leave his family, but you can’t really hold it against him, an existential crisis is hard to ignore. so cute riding his bike all around town to save the earth, more like him and we’re golden.

5. Children Of Men’s Theo Faron as portrayed by Clive Owen (2006). okay let’s just start with the simple fact that Owen in almost any role can for me make this list and he likely makes my “actor top 5 list” regardless of characters, he is just talented and beautiful and tall and with the accent, forget it, i’m gone. pair that with the fact that he plays somber hero Theo in this film with beautiful understated glory. Theo has been handed a horrible deal in this film but every action he takes from start to finish is nothing but heroic. i was totally in love when i saw this and remain so today. *sigh* oh Clive…i mean Theo…

4. Zodiac’s Robert Graysmith as portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal (2007). there is only one reason that Gyllenhall’s Graysmith is not number one on this list (because i was in love like maybe never before when i walked out of this film) and that is because i am forced to admit that his goodness and his obsession overran his life in such a way that he ultimately abandons any life outside of it, i.e. his children and wife suffer. however, he is the definition of boyscout, and is adorable in an unaware way for the entire film. i remain in love, despite his possibly “not good’ obsession. i mean just look at him in this picture?! how are you not in love already? the hands in the pockets and sheepish look…? i can’t take it!

3. Pieces of April’s Bobby as portrayed by Derek Luke (2003). if you are me, you spent most of Pieces of April (a pretty good film) worrying about Bobby…what was going to happen to him, is he going to be okay, is this film going to take some horrible turn and tear him away from me…i mean…April? i worried because he is amazing, he is the perfect guy, and since he is the perfect guy he likely cannot even exist on film and will be torn away from us. fortunately Pieces is not an overly sadistic film and there is plenty of misery to go around without doing something to Bobby, and so he survives the film unscathed and remains the perfect boyfriend, for all of us to fantasize about…

2. This is a tie…i know, i know, it’s a cop out, but it is the same actor in two different roles, which is the rationalization i’m sticking to. Sign’s Merrill Hess as portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix (2002) and The Village’s Lucius Hunt as portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix (2004). i don’t mean to imply that these characters are too similar, just that they are equally heroic and beautiful (both inside and blissfully out). Merrill doesn’t get as much screen time as Lucius and delivers in a more subtle way but there is nothing sexier than when he talks about being “pretty strong and pretty fast” and there is nothing sexier than giving up your life to help your older brother raise his children after his wife dies and he loses all faith. i mean that is the definition of good guy. and also of hot. Lucius is so old fashioned as to want to protect his entire village and most of all his blind girlfriend but he is also progressive enough to get himself stabbed halfway through and let his blind lady love heroine save him and the village instead. Lucius is the most noble of characters, brought to life beautifully by Phoenix and Shyamalan.

1. 28 Days Later’s Jim as portrayed by Cillian Murphy (2002). there are many reasons why Jim is number one on this list, the first of which is the fact that unlike Phoenix and Owen, both of who i have unnaturally large crushes on, i don’t have a thing for Murphy, but i very much have a HUGE thing for Jim. Murphy’s portrayal of Jim is honest and beautiful and so real. just a regular and believeable good guy who had hero written all over him all his life, but just didn’t know it until circumstances demanded it. i think we all hope we are Jim deep down, few of us likely are. Jim does a complete 180 in the film, becoming a monster by the end, in order to protect those he loves. he crosses the line into animal rage to save the women he has come to value as family and ultimately he retains his humanity despite the extreme measures to which he is driven. i loved Jim from the beginning, and it didn’t hurt when he came out of the bathroom with his hair all shaved off, hello…hotness…oh yes, i think you’ve arrived.

so that’s just one girl’s opinion, the 10 (okay 14) modern day good guys that get me going…