The reason this style works is that there's nothing black, or even particularly dark, in the photo. So no, your guy has dressed badly for this situation.
I promise, your file is perfect. Smooth as silk.
Can you try something for me quickly? Go to Edit>Assign Profile, and assign your monitor profile to the image. Does that make it look worse, better, or no change?
There must be a black-and-white layer in the group that's desaturating everything underneath it.
Just add a mask to the group and make sure it's only being applied to its half of the file.