The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys

As reported by Dollyforme

In a year filled with superheroes and sequels, it’s refreshing, if not bewildering, to discover a major studio film with characters you’ve never seen before, and a plot that doesn’t come saddled with the expectations of a franchise wearing it down.

That said, there is something familiar in The Nice Guys, though it’s a welcome familiarity: the sharp wit, lovably scuzzy heroes and old-school macho posturing that’s synonymous with the work of Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). The writer-director’s long history with the buddy-cop genre is expertly mined here, as a slapsticky Ryan Gosling and a no-nonsense Russell Crowe team up to unravel a ‘70s-set crime involving porn stars, hit men and auto makers. It’s all delightfully fizzy, bloody fun – even if there’s the teeniest, tiniest hint of sequel ambitions.

Los Angeles. 1977. Holland Marsh (Gosling) is a drunken, widowed gumshoe working cases that might be described as a rung down from ambulance-chasing, and only then with the assistance of his wise, disapproving 13-year-old daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice).

Fate - or more accurately a client - brings Jackson Healy (Crowe) knocking on Marsh’s. Healy is thug-for-hire whose talents include owning knuckledusters and using knuckledusters. Together, they are the agreeable fellows of the ironic title: just two mismatched buddies attempting to unravel a conspiracy that involves dead porn stars, Big Automobile and Kim Basinger.

The latest film from Lethal Weapon scribe and former Hollywood wunderkind Shane Black is, to borrow Spinal Tap’s album title: None More Black. Packed with verbal sparring and quips about the horrors of marriage, every exchange might have been culled from earlier screenplays for Last Boy Scout or The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Sample bants: “Look on the bright side: nobody got hurt,” sighs Marsh. “People got hurt”, demurs Healy (Crowe). And back to Marsh: “I’m saying, I think they died quickly. So I don’t think they got hurt.” Ba Dum Tish. Etc.

Crowe and Gosling enact this two-step awfully well: Crowe finds the comedy in extreme boorishness and Gosling is a revelation as a buffoon with a toddler-scream.

But the problem for Shane Black is, well, Shane Black. Having once made the kind of impact on the cinematic landscape that normally takes out several species, Black, with his trademark zingers, warring buddies and love of Hollywood sleaze, has lost none of his tricksy charms. It’s just that we’ve seen these tricksy charms before.

Even if you’ve never heard the name of writer/director Shane Black before, chances are, you’ve seen at least one or two of his films. With a career that has spanned about 20 years, he has given us the screenplays to such films as “Lethal Weapon,” “The Monster Squad,” and “Last Action Hero. In 2005, he finally climbed into the director’s chair as well to deliver what has perhaps been his most popular film to date, the bizarre mystery-comedy “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” For his latest project, “The Nice Guys,” he once again pulls double duty as director and co-writer to return to similar territory, except this time, he takes it back a few decades to spice things up a bit.

Taking place in 1977, the story follows two detectives, Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) and Holland March (Ryan Gosling), whose cases end up intersecting. First, March is hired to locate a missing porn actress, but with her sudden death, he turns his attention to locating a young woman, Amelia (Margaret Qualley), he has been asked to track down. As it so happens, Healy has been hired by Amelia to stop others from following her, resulting in Healy giving a rather stern physical warning to March in order to get him off the case. However, when a pair of thugs tries to get her location from Healy, he changes his mind and decides to work with March to find her. As the investigation continues, they discover that she was involved in making a certain film with the recently-deceased porn actress, a film that could crack open a conspiracy that puts their lives in serious jeopardy.

As mentioned earlier, this is a return to somewhat similar subject matter that we’ve already seen Shane Black tackle in the past, but if there’s one thing we know about him, it’s that he handles this kind of material very well, with “The Nice Guys” being no exception. Once more we have a strange case to fill the story, populated with several colorful characters that immediately get your attention, both of which slowly but surely draw you into the seedy world that Black creates as the backdrop for his tale. It just so happens that this time he has chosen to take us back to the 70s to tell his story, which becomes an intriguing homage to not only buddy comedies, but also to the mystery films of the period.

A large part of what makes the film work so well is the incredible chemistry between the two leads, Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. It’s doubtful that there are many out there who would have ever thought of such a pairing, especially given Crowe’s proclivity for taking on serious roles in films like “Gladiator,” “A Beautiful Mind,” and “Les Miserables.” However, we can be glad that someone did, because their scenes together come off as so incredibly natural that they only serve to help pull you into the story even more.

Of course, their individual performances must be singled out as well. In a surprising twist, it turns out that Russell Crowe is actually decent with comedy when given good material (this is in stark contrast to his recent stint on “Saturday Night Live.”). I don’t think we can expect this to become a regular thing for him, but it’s fascinating to watch him branch out and try something new after being known for his dramatic work all this time. As for Gosling, we already knew he could handle comedy quite well from films like “Lars and the Real Girl” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” so the fact that he tackles the material here quite skillfully is no surprise.

If one had to point out any fault in the film, it would have to be its overlong runtime. The film runs for about two hours, but there didn’t really seem any need for it to be nearly that long, especially when it comes to the stretched-out action climax and the fact that there are several scenes that feel superfluous. Don’t get me wrong, for most of that time, it’s a rather engaging detective story, but it definitely could have been tighter and it would have flowed a little better because of it.

Even so, “The Nice Guys” remains a very entertaining film thanks to its excellent leads and a good helping of dark humor. It’s the kind of humor that might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re open to it, you’ll probably get a few good laughs in the process. The film may not hit the heights of Shane Black’s previous foray into this genre, but there’s no denying that it has a lot of charm. It’s a fun mystery that will have you guessing for a decent part of the film, and while you might be able to see the ending coming from a mile away, it does nothing to hinder the amusing and exciting journey it takes to get there.

Too often, The Nice Guys feels like the Funniest Film of 1994. There are worse things. I happily recommend this movie out for rental in a redbox machine near you.