MovieChat Forums > In the Company of Men (1997) Discussion > 'Nice Guy' Howard Was the Most Believabl...

'Nice Guy' Howard Was the Most Believable Character

posted 12 years ago by lornamd-1
7 replies | jump to latest

Of all the characters in the film I found Howard to be the most believable. A whiny loser with a victim complex who thinks that being a "nice guy" is the reason he doesn't do well with women not realizing he isn't that much of a nice guy to begin with.

Men like Howard seem to be the most common type of misogynist who justify the abuse of women by arguing that women go for abusive men over "nice guys" like them and therefore deserve any mistreatment or abuse they receive.

This isn't taking into account that:

Not all women are the same so should not be grouped together and judged collectively
If they were truly nice guys they wouldn't have such a callous attitude towards abuse victims
Not all abusers are macho types and most seem like nice people to begin with
There are probably other reasons they don't do well with women

Howards pathetic self-pity and the way he uses this to victimize Christine was very believable and unfortunately rang all too true. Go to any board discussing abuse of women and you normally find "nice guys" spouting the same sh t Howard does (theres even one or two on this board).

It would be good to see a film with such a believable portrayal of the type of self-pitying woman who claims "all men are scumbags" without realizing how scummy her own behavior is.

[–] Darkfalz1979 12 years ago

Howard types are very understandable. They aren't true misogynists, but due to their lack of money / good looks, they tend to only see the bad side of women. So are naturally going to end up with a low opinion of them (unless they are happy to meet one of the 0.1% of nice women who'd give them a fair chance).

[–] lornamd-1 12 years ago

A real life Howard. Kind of sad really.

[–] hodie 10 years ago

I have seen my share of Internet posts by men who claim they are "nice guys" yet have nothing good to say about women. Apparently they aren't THAT nice, but since they display a baseline level of good manners they are entitled to female approval and even sex. No wonder they strike out. They have no idea how phony they seem.

There are good guys who are genuinely nice. They are a whole different story from "nice guys" who are not genuinely good.

[–] Darkfalz1979 10 years ago

Being nice doesn't mean you have to lie.

If you don't have a certain level of looks or wealth, you will rarely, if ever, be on the receiving end of female kindness. If you were a man women frequently use, ignore or put down, would you have a high opinion of them?

[–] asandaaron 8 years ago

Hopefully you've killed yourself by now over the past 2 years

[–] sven_fernandes 10 years ago

All good perspectives here... But the last one had a punchline!
And YES there are movies about misandrists (Man-haters).. I.e the movie monster or the movie Hard candy..

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 5 years ago

Matt Malloy, who played "Howard," was also executive producer of the film.

Hard to believe he's actually quite "alpha" in real life - but he definitely understands the character of Howard at a base level.

Maybe Malloy's even BEEN Howard in the past - he's lived it and grown past it

Certainly, he felt like the most "real" character in the film