The Nice Guys - Review (Glasgow Herald)

Rating: 4 out of 5

SHANE Black may be a name that’s synonymous with the mis-matched buddy action comedy, having penned the script for Lethal Weapon and written and directed Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, but there are no signs of creative fatigue setting in just yet.

A passion project that’s been sitting around for over 10 years, The Nice Guys is a potent reminder of why Black is so highly regarded. It’s smart, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny yet often unflinchingly tough – and it features another dynamite "odd couple" partnership at its core.

It’s Los Angeles in 1977 and down-on-his luck private eye Holland March (Ryan Gosling) has been tasked with finding a missing girl, which quickly puts him on the radar of world-weary enforcer-for-hire Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), who is called upon to beat March up and throw him off the scent.

Discovering that they’re both being set up as part of the same conspiracy, involving corporate pollution and the porn industry, the two men team up to do the "nice" thing, only to find their own lives further in danger as a result.

If Black’s film sounds overly familiar to any fans of this genre, then that’s deliberate and part of the delight. Black readily acknowledges that his film was inspired by the '70s noir thrillers that inspired him, from the obvious Chinatown to the "old school tough guy" roles more commonly inhabited by Lee Marvin and John Cassavettes. But he’s also not averse to referencing his own back catalogue, with several enjoyable nods to past work such as Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Yet in spite of this, there’s a freshness too, thanks in no small part to the winning chemistry brought to the table by leading men Gosling and Crowe, but also by the writer-director’s unparalleled ability to wrong-foot viewers at every turn.

There are several occasions when Black almost effortlessly combines slapstick comedy with bone-crunching violence, while some surreal flights of fancy also provide him with some scope for playful invention and genre subversion. And then there are the plot twists, too, reminiscent of the way in which Black toyed with certain expectations on Iron Man 3.

For while the film is essentially about Gosling and Crowe and their path to personal redemption from the directions they’ve allowed their lives to take, it’s a 13-year-old girl, played by relative newcomer Angourie Rice, who frequently steals the show and offers the most intelligence.

As March’s long-suffering daughter, Rice frequently finds herself as the brains [and wheels] behind their particular operation, bailing her father out whenever the situation demands. Black has used this device fleetingly in The Last Boy Scout but here allows Rice to have a far greater impact on proceedings. She embraces the opportunity with relish, combining the odd teen tantrum with a gutsy maturity beyond her years. If anything, Rice lends the film its genuine heart and soul and she’s very much a star to watch.

Gosling, for his part, shares some nice father-daughter moments with her, while also providing a master-class in ineptitude. Far from being a tough guy in the Bruce Willis/Mel Gibson mould, his broken down PI is a buffoon, more likely to scream hysterically in the face of violence, or get drunk and injure himself in some jaw-dropping pratfall. It’s another of the film’s many master-strokes.

Crowe, meanwhile, has fun acting as the foil, with his brutish but redemptive thug content to trade well on the verbal bullets supplied by Black’s typically killer script. His interplay with Gosling is particularly memorable, making talk of a potential sequel, set in the ‘80s, a mouth-watering prospect.

And if all of the above didn’t already provide enough reason to go and see it, The Nice Guys also tosses in some memorable villains (step forward Matt Bomer and Keith David), as well as a healthy dose of scepticism in terms of what it has to say about political and corporate corruption as well as the corrosion of childhood innocence. For while set in the 1970s, this does resonate with many of today’s headlines and topical debates.

Above all, though, The Nice Guys is a gleeful celebration of all things Black, a genre treat that leaves you thirsting for more.