The Nice Guys Review

The Nice Guys is a problematic film but it's also a refreshing one. The film opens with a teenage boy stealing a porn magazine from under his fathers bed. Moments later a car crashes through his house driven by porn star Misty Mountains. Seeing her mutilated and naked corpse in the car the boy decides to cover it with his magazine, giving her some dignity in death, This scene is indicative of the films exploration of sexuality and porn. There is a casual, permissive attitude about these things displayed by many characters in the film but, at the same time, a sense of regret and some inherent sense of dignity.
     Healy (played by Russel Crowe) is a very jaded character, having been separated from his wife when he found out she was having an affair with his father. He still has the desire to do something better with his life but doesn't have any hope that this can ever happen. March (Ryan Gosling), by contrast, is a younger and somewhat less nihilistic character who blames himself for his wife's death in a house fire. If Healy's lost faith in humanity March has lost it in himself.  What brings them both out of their apathy is March's daughter Holly (Angourie Rice). Both characters want to shelter her from physical harm and exposure to their seedy, violent world. The real problematic scenes occur when they fail to do so. When Holly attends a seedy party and watches a porno with a an escort I have to wonder how much Shane Black sympathizes with March's desire to shelter her. In the end it's really up to the viewer to judge for themselves how they feel about this. Eventually March and Healy's protective actions toward Holly morph into a desire to be better role models for her and complete a case that they don't really need to (monetarily) for the sake of justice. For me using Holly as a catalyst to redeem our main characters mitigates some of the moral quandaries I have with what she is put through earlier in the film.
      With that out of the way I'll just say that The Nice Guys is filled with awesome performances, competent action, a witty script, and production design that perfectly captures the gritty 1970's. It's also filled with what I'd call Shane Blackisms: buddy cop trappings, a plot involving the death of a porn actress, down on their luck protagonists, an eccentric assassin, the involvement of children. All of these elements can be found in other Shane Black movies, especially Lethal Weapon which is basically the blueprint for his other films. It's not for everyone but, if you don't mind being challenged a little, it's definitely worth seeing.

Score: 9/10