Incompetent private detective Holland March (Ryan Gosling) and mercenary Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) are investigating the disappearance of a girl and the death of a porn star. Are they both connected and what the hell is going on? Marc's daughter (Bingwright Rice), despite her fragile age, is also eager to unravel the mystery. The missing girl is Amelia, and her mother (Kim Basinger) gives a nice and dear to find her. Shots with automobile factories, conspiracies, environmental protests to protect birds, and fear of assassins. Let's not talk about the plot, because I'm going to want my brain to burst. Shane Black and Anthony Bagaroz write the script back in 2001, but no studio accepts it. Five years later, they try to stretch it in a series, but the conditions are not good. Only now, after thirteen years of delay, there is one last attempt. Crow joins and the miracle happens. The inspiration for the "The Nice Guys" comes from old detective thrillers and kitsch crime novels that were sold at airports in the 50's and 60's (with cult illustrations by Robert McGinnis). Black is impressed by the craftsmanship that has been done in telling these stories. It is not about literature, but about engagement. How long will you keep your attention through masterfully executed schemes. Meanwhile, some of them sneak in subtext, become masterpieces of the genre.
Despite their popularity, few of them get quality adaptations. Only "Night Maneuvering", which can be qualified as one of the first neo noirs, stands out from the period. In it, Jean Heckman's character marks a significant change in the image of the private detective, depicting it with human weaknesses and flaws. The beloved generation of Americans Philip Marlowe begins to smell of a past era. Stories of men who, like Western characters, appear in the city, set them on fire, and give up their own justice, then leave, on the backdrop of flames, or after they have ordered (according to their ideas, of course). The two cowboys and the private detective are typically American and tell the same story in practice. According to Black, even "Lethal Weapon" carries the same western spirit. In his words it's a gunslinger story. "The Nice Guys" is immersed in the rebellious spirit of the 70's and draws with all the strengths (where successful, where not so much) of the freedom of classics, such as "Vanishing Point" and "Five Easy Pieces," which are bold and unpredictable films, often crossing the border, but effective because of their deep authenticity. The freedom they own is harsh and irreconcilable. Black picks up mostly from the series "The Rockford Files", which has a rather charming and light, butaphorous radiance. The cars, which play a major role in the film, directly recall "Bullet" and "The Seven-Ups". As a screenwriter, Black is to blame for numerous full-length combos. Those in "The Last Action Hero," "The Last Boyshot" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and especially the cult duo of "Lethal Weapon" (the second part of the series is probably the best buddy cop movie ever made). The wonderful "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" from 2005, which unfortunately was not financially successful, because of the fall of Val Kilmer's career and Robert Downey's recently released prison, is the closest thing to the current film.
"The Nice Guys" is a neo-noir who does not use the genre tropics, but mixes them with the seventeenth-colored spirit, wrapping them upside down, shaking and opening the cap. In a scene that uses all the rules and clichés, suddenly someone slips, another behaves defiantly with the villain, the third commented on what would have happened if it was a movie. It's fun because it makes you out of the comfort zone. It's very Deadpool-ish. March and Healey follow the tradition of Bush Cassidy and Sundance Kid, but are closer to Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. When Marc sees the discarded corpse of a porn producer with whom he has rolled out of the deck of a luxury house, his reaction is butaforous, he can irritate if you did not follow the hints of what you're looking at. In the first scene a boy gets out of bed to read a porn magazine, and a minute later a car goes by his house. When she goes to the wreckage, she sees Misty Mountains, the same porn actress she's seen before, standing in the same posture as in the magazine, this time dirty with blood and dying. The boy takes off his jacket and covers it. The essence of being a nice guy.
The blending of tones that directors rarely allow to do is a favorite activity of Shane Black. In the "The Nice Guys" we witness a clever switch between playfulness and seriousness. The movie is not sentimental, but even in some places it is extreme and raw, it retains its emotional core. Marc and Healey learn to be good people, there is nobility in them, they look like knights with battered armor. One sheds his helmet, the other slips over his buttocks with his rusty spear. Marc's relationship with his daughter also helps to look at the characters as more than just dolls of threads that only function to entertain us. Enjaer Rice is exceptional. Convincing in more dramatic scenes and flawless timing, she deserves to qualify in the list of most promising young actresses. The chemistry between her and Gosling, between Gosling and Crow, between Crow and ... his inner self. This is the heart of the movie, the hidden engine that makes the scenes effective. You like these characters, you want to watch them again. All are wonderful, but Gosling steals the show. I have not seen another sex symbol play such a convincing idiot. Maybe only George Clooney. The physical comedy he demonstrates reminds of the things that legendary Peter Sellers uses. Like in a scene in which Marc breaks a window by hand, it cuts off, makes him sick of the blood, slides down the stairs. Or the way he trembles in the elevator after seeing John Boy's skills (we have not yet discussed the "bad" because his appearance in the movie is almost as late as in the review). These effective scenes look like they're written without a movie and are actually written exactly as one of the few minuses of the movie. Black and Bagarosi have fun with the characters, create funny scenes with them, collect everything in a box, then review and discard what they did not like. This method creates great comedy episodes, but it hinders the end result. The film starts to look like a bunch of bows, the overall structure bends under the weight of the jokes.