The Nice Guys
Director: Shane Black
Talent: Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer
Release Date: 3rd June
The Nice Guys is a noir comedy very much in the same mould as director Shane Black’s earlier Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, both films being set in LA and featuring a daft motor-mouth unwillingly partnering up with a gruff bruiser to solve a virtually incomprehensible mystery. Ryan Gosling plays Holland March, a struggling, hard-drinking single father and such an incompetent PI that his early attempt at smashing a suspect’s window ends with him almost bleeding to death in an ambulance. His latest missing person investigation brings him into contact with Russell Crowe’s hired enforcer, Jackson Healy, and despite a violent start to their relationship, the two soon find themselves working together on a case that will take them into the dark heart of the pornography and automobile industries.
Although the film is not entirely without faults, such as the somewhat uninspired use made of its 1970s setting and the lack of a strong adversarial figure, The Nice Guys reaps the benefits of a typically clever script and assured direction from Black as well as the unexpected comedic chops of its central duo. Heavier than usual and clearly enjoying himself for once, Crowe is a great foil for Gosling, who is completely hilarious throughout, from his constant verbal diarrhea and unorthodox parenting techniques to a previously untapped aptitude for physical comedy that brings Buster Keaton or the great WC Fields to mind. Although newcomer Angourie Rice more than holds her own as March’s smart, precocious 13 year old daughter, the other supporting players don’t fare quite as well: Matt Bomer is good as a deadly hitman but shows up too late to really make an impact, while Kim Basinger is anonymous in her two short scenes. The final shootout is also disappointingly humdrum compared to what has come before, but one leaves satisfied nevertheless, and actually looking forward to the sequel that’s set up in the closing scenes.
Words: Felipe Deakin
