Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Nice Guys - 2 smiles


Russell Crowe (Jackson Healy) and Ryan Gosling (PI Holland March) have a quirky odd-couple relationship in “The Nice Guys” that plays well for the comedy portion of this noir mystery. However, the scene-stealer is 15-year old newcomer Angourie Rice, who plays March’s daughter Amelia. Her natural performance radiates charm and charisma and her skillful interactions with Gosling and Crowe are high points of the movie. For the most part, the two stars breeze happily along. But everything around them seems slightly off. Director Shane Black hits all the Me Decade buttons – Atari Pong, gas lines around the corner, big hair and the digitally added layer of smog that blankets LA. Maybe because of this the entire film feels greasy. Maybe it’s the porn-industry subplot, which gives Black an opportunity to wallow in breasts and butts. There’s just a little too much slapstick for me and that interferes with the forward momentum of the plot.

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