The Nice Guys (2016)

You check Rotten Tomatoes on a movie, and it divides the reviews simply: recommend or not recommend. So what's the verdict on this film? Uh ... you see ... well some of works and some of it doesn't ... I guess I'm not sure.

Let's take the positive first. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling make a great team. The chemistry between the two flat out works. Crowe shows a light touch never shown before, and Gosling shows again his greatest talent may be his comic timing. Angourie Rice is a find as Gosling's daughter. I'd rate it with Natalie Portman in The Professional in terms of finds in a child actress.

Writer-director Shane Black has set the film in 1977, and he really gives the film a time and place. There is a feel to this film, a rhythm not of today. The dialogue between the three actors above is fun and snappy.

Now the negative. Shane Black has a habit of breaking writing rules in a way that shows how clever he is. Sometimes too much. The scene early in the film where Gosling breaks a window to gain access to a building only to cut himself and pass out from the blood is a fun play with conviction. But he makes a major mistake in the plotting.

The mystery makes many twists and turns but only one character is interesting in the mystery. The killing of that character in a twist of fate is at first clever but robs the movie of any engine, so that the third act drags and badly overstays its welcome. The big finale gets a big shrug from me because of the lack of momentum in the film.

I'd gladly see another film with Crowe, Gosling, and Rice. These are actors, and characters, deserving of a better film. So I guess I give the film a slight recommendation for introducing me to them.

Grade: B-