After a sloppy yet passionate affair with Marvel, Shane Black has returned to his teenage sweetheart and steadfast partner: the action comedy. Comfortably sitting back into the genre where he produced Lethal Weapon 1 & 2 and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Black presents us with another exuberant, if imperfect film about a mismatched duo attempting to unravel a mystery that’s just a little too loose at the seams.
The Nice Guys brings together Ryan Gosling’s alcoholic private-eye Holland March and Russel Crowe’s professional tough-guy Jackson Healy to solve a case involving a missing girl, the thugs searching for her and a dead porn star. Starting to sound like a noir film? Well before things get too hard-boiled, March is a wailing coward and Healy’s only meaningful relationship is with his pet fish. The Nice Guys bleeds from the same vein as Black’s previous noir comedy, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and oozes with his sardonic and violent comedic sensibilities.
The films greatest assets come in its characters and performances turned in by its leads. Gosling shows a propensity for physical comedy as the buffoonish March, whose life is only stabilised by his precocious young daughter Holly; portrayed by the solid, if occasionally clumsy, Angourie Rice. Crowe’s paunchy enforcer Healy plays pragmatic and violent foil to March and they clash wonderfully. Their first encounter is an apt set-up and summary of their affiliation which ends with Healy breaking March’s arm for a job. Both characters are sketched with depth and back story, but the film has little interest in shading this in, and would instead rather poke fun at the tragedies of its leads. Despite being the alcoholic single-father, it’s Healy and not March who is provided with the more emotional scenes of the two and what could be called development (though in the spirit of the film it culminates in a joke), and Crowe sells them well.
The films overarching story is serviceable if rudimentary at points. After their initial meeting our two leads eventually team up and are hired Judith Kutner (Kim Basinger) to find track down her missing daughter Amelia (Margaret Qually). Their investigations lead them through some enjoyable scenes involving protesting hippies and porn moguls, but it begins to drag towards the end of the second act as plot developments drip slower and it all seems to get too clear where the script is headed. But where a lesser film would be complacent to ride out this meandering river, The Nice Guys gives itself a fresh burst of energy through a whimsically dark twist to begin the third act and reinvest us in more than just the comedy.
The finale itself is a crackling mix of explosive action and hilarious happenstance. Shane Black puts his experience to good use in the final shoot-out, making it dynamic and entertaining, with plenty of prat-falls and twisted funny deaths.
While the finale is worth the wait, it’s getting there is where The Nice Guys struggles. This is a film about the relationship between our leading men and how they react to the plot, not the plot itself, and this is clear through how they “solve” their ways through each stage of the mystery. Most developments hinge entirely on coincidence, or a passer-by knowing where they have to go next. It begins to feel as if the film is leading our characters around, having them interact with a new setting, stumble upon another clue and then go to the next place in the script. The pacing also presents some issues where they hang around the same scene a little too long before the story progresses, though the film never sags.
Make no mistake about what The Nice Guys is about and you won’t be disappointed. I entered expecting an enjoyable romp which was violently funny that would be anchored by two great performances by its leads. The film arrived and served me a platter brimming with odd-couple comedy and sizzling shoot-outs. But the plate was so overstuffed it left little room for plot, which can turn a good dish into a great one. Still, I’ll gladly pay for what Shane Black has cooked up as he does so with a veteran’s hand.
