“The Nice Guys” is a Shane Black film through and through. It’s a variation on the buddy cop formula, this time pairing up a private investigator and a messenger. It has a bombastic pace and is filled to the brim with quips. It’s as violent as it is funny, with the humor being as black as his last name. It’s even set during Christmas at one point. So, if you didn’t like “The Last Boy Scout,” “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” or the “Lethal Weapon” films…well, you and I have differing tastes, as I loved those films, but nonetheless…if you didn’t like those films, you won’t like “The Nice Guys.” For those of you who revel in this material, you’ll love “The Nice Guys!” Also, I owe you a drink sometime for having good taste.
The private investigator and messenger are Holland March (Ryan Gosling), a bumbling PI whose resourceful daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice), is a better detective than he is, and Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), a messenger who lets his fists do the talking for him. The two initially meet when Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley) hires Jackson to send a message to Holland: stop following her. This message is dealt out with a few fists to the face and a broken arm.
Amelia will bring Holland and Jackson together once more after two hitmen trash Jackson’s apartment in search of her. Narrowly surviving, Jackson tracks down Holland this time to hire him to find Amelia (which he had just told him not to do). This is where the buddy cop formula comes into play, as Holland is a buffoon, especially after getting a few drinks in him, and Jackson is short-tempered yet kind-hearted. Together, they get involved in an increasingly convoluted and increasingly hilarious investigation that involves a porno ring, pollution conspiracy theories, corrupt government officials, and shootouts and car chases galore.
Only someone like Shane Black could make a comedy like “The Nice Guys” work. Most would write the story around the jokes, resulting in the story falling flat and eventually getting in the way. Black writes the story first and inserts the jokes around it. While the one-liners may read as forced on paper, they come off as organic in the film; Holland and Jackson would crack wise with one another and go off on random tangents throughout the investigation, not just because their personalities suit it, but also to keep themselves sane in an insane profession. When Jackson tells a story about a man meeting Richard Nixon just before death, we understand the metaphor he’s going for, which makes Holland’s rude dismissal of it all the more funnier.
Black isn’t immune to the issues that normally plague the buddy cop comedy; he practically created the issues himself throughout the years. By rattling off jokes quicker than the actresses the duo encounter take off their clothes, the film hits a brick wall a few times when needed to slow down. Instead of gradually decelerating in order to move the story along, the film occasionally comes to a dead stop. One second you’re knee deep in one-liners, the next you’re up to your neck in clues. It can create a mood whiplash severe enough to throw a viewer off track.
Thankfully, “The Nice Guys” only suffers from a few dead spots. Sure, it also suffers from some jokes falling flat, such as Holland’s hallucination involving a bumblebee complaining about air pollution. In a film like this, you expect some jokes to fail, as there’s so many being thrown at the screen that they can’t all possibly stick. What matters is that the ratio for jokes that connect is good and it’s good here! The sequence in which the nice guys crash a pollution rally had me howling!
Just as important as the writing and direction is the chemistry between the two leads and Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are splendid together! The two bounce off of one another flawlessly, with it being believable that they’d slowly warm up to one another. Both suffer from regret and self-pity, Holland especially due to the death of his wife, that they’d naturally find common ground. Throwing Holland’s precocious daughter into the mix only helps matters, as she helps in giving the two of them someone to protect.
Praise must be given to Angourie Rice who nearly steals the show as Holly March. She has the hardest task to pull off, making the mouthy thirteen year old appealing. Shane Black writes to the character’s strengths, highlighting her intelligence and quick wit. She may ultimately be a pawn in order to keep things moving, but she’s a cleverly written one. Keep your eyes on Angourie Rice as I’m sure she’ll be a breakout star soon enough.
After dipping his toes into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Iron Man 3,” Shane Black returns to the action subgenre that made him famous and he hasn’t missed a beat. “The Nice Guys” sits comfortably alongside “The Last Boy Scout,” “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and the “Lethal Weapon” films as a wildly hilarious dark comedy!
Final Rating: B+