“The Nice Guys” is a two-hour movie with a lot to love and a few things to shrug at. For those who haven’t seen the trailers, the movie is a 70s-set crime caper featuring comedic performances by Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. The two play a pair of private investigators looking into the disappearance of a young woman with ties to the adult film industry. It's directed by Shane Black and written by him and Anthony Bagarozzi. Black is well known in genre fare, having written the first two “Lethal Weapon” movies back in the 80s, and writing and directing “Iron Man 3” in 2013.
The movie starts out with a jarringly… “exposed” prologue involving the death/alleged murder of a porn star. Without going into spoilers, I will say that this set a strange tone that didn’t feel in line with the rest of the movie to me. But thankfully, the movie picks back up when we are formally introduced to our two main characters. Gosling plays a depressed, irreverent, and somewhat sloppy private investigator who is in search for a woman named Amelia. Meanwhile, Russell Crowe is a hired tough guy who has been assigned by Amelia herself to deter Gosling’s character. Thus, the two meet and eventually, for various reasons, team up to find Amelia.
Black shows his comedic strengths in this movie in tremendous force, though many gags go on for a little too long. However, it’s worth noting that they don’t fizzle out in the same way as an SNL skit or a Key and Peele skit do - the joke is usually escalated in a fun way. Where I was genuinely pleased and surprised in the movie are the parts that were filled with pathos. The characters’ motivations just make sense. This is an action comedy at the end of the day, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t love getting to see every layer peeled back. The subtle messages about corporate and institutional corruption are even more impressive, as well as the part we all play in letting corruption happen.
One thing I was happy about was ultimately how goofy and relatively easy to follow the mystery plot was. I get lost in the plot frequently during mystery movies. A perfect example - which rings true for many whom I've talked to - is "Inherent Vice" from a year or so back. "The Nice Guys" takes you on a fun ride through the dirty handshakes and liquor-soaked locales of 1977 Los Angeles. And I can't go any further without giving most of my praise to the character and the performance of Angourie Rice as Ryan Gosling's daring and whip-smart daughter, Holly. She is the most consistently fun and engaging character, played with intensity and charm by a 13 year old, no less.
Though it never astounds, "The Nice Guys" delights and entertains, proving to be a really refreshing movie amidst the summer blockbusters.
