The Nice Guys

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Shane Black/Starring: Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Kim Basinger, Keith David and Margaret Qualley

I really liked the idea of a buddy comedy starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. Neither actor is known for comedic roles and the unlikely pairing is enough to intrigue even the most casual movie-goer. Unfortunately for director Shane Black's The Nice Guys, the concept alone isn't enough to overcome the film's deficiencies. How can a comic send-up of a noir set in the mid to late 1970s' possibly go wrong when the period and setting offer so much potential for satire and farce? Well, this is Hollywood; where any number of issues dealing with conception and execution can derail a film. For Black's flick, a dearth of gags is hardly the problem. What is the problem are the lack of quality gags and funny scenes, which fail to transmute grins to guffaws. As is so often the case with a comedy so heavily promoted as Black's film, the funniest stuff is in the trailer and if what you see in the preview doesn't elicit a giggle, then you're out of luck.

Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling play detectives Jackson Healy and Holland March, respectively; who are brought together by chance when each find themselves embroiled in the same case involving a porn star who commits suicide. A person of interest in the star's death is a young woman named Amelia Kuttner, whose connection to the death is later made clear.

The meeting between detectives is hardly auspicious as Healy roughs up March after mistaking him for a cad chasing young girls. The bumbling March is an amusing contrast to Healy; a no-nonsense, violent man who gets quick results. Because Healy isn't technically a detective, he hires March to help him find Amelia. Their search leads them all over disco-era L.A. Along for the ride is March's young daughter Holly (Angourie Rice), who becomes a third member of the sleuthing team after she ignores her father's repeated commands to stay home.

Healy and March run afoul of some thugs hired to find Amelia, who represent an organized crime syndicate in Detroit. The baddies try to kill the detectives at a party where the two are chasing down a lead.

The early scenes show some comic promise as Holly proves to be the most level-headed member of the trio. Not a lot of snappy repartee passes between the three but their chemistry at least makes them worthwhile company.

In time, Healy and March meet with the head of the Justice Department, Judith Kuttner (Kim Basinger), who has more than a passing interest in finding her daughter. She hires the two detectives to find Amelia.
Amelia's activities with a protest group who demonstrate against L.A.'s smog problem and the pollution generated by the Big Three auto makers in Detroit comes to light. The detectives discover Amelia is behind the making of a porn/protest film intended to be shown at an industry car show as a way of shaming the auto makers.

As Healy, March and Holly dodge hitmen and follow leads, they eventually discover Judith Kuttner is actually in cahoots with the auto makers and is intent on stopping her daughter. When the protest film is shown at the car show, Kuttner's thugs attempt to steal it, which results in a showdown with Holly and March.

The plot isn't exactly Chinatown though we shouldn't expect or want it to be but the story takes a detour from comedy to semi-seriousness, which places a kink in the fun.

Gosling shows a surprising flare for comedy though he could do better with better material. Crowe is mostly the straight man but he too shows some comedic ability. A scene where the two dispose of a body by throwing it over a wall, where it lands on a party below is amusing though we saw it coming in the trailer. Most scenes are all set-up with no comic pay-off. Gosling is at times over-the-top, particularly a scene where he whimpers uncontrollably.

As the film progressed, the silence in the theater became overpowering. What might have been a fairly funny noir parody became one more forgettable afternoon at the multiplex.

For all heavy promotion the film received and the commercial tie-ins (never trust a movie with tie-ins), the movie just came across as a factory product. Too bad; both Gosling and Crowe were game for some something different. The eternal question: will this become a franchise? The eternal answer; wait and see.

Third Person

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Paul Haggis/Starring: Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Adrian Brody, Mila Kunis, James Franco, Maria Bello, Kim Basinger, Loan Chabanol and Moran Atias

I wasn't a fan of Haggis' Oscar-winning film Crash; I found it overrated, over-cooked and underwritten and I have to say I had the same reaction to Third Person. Both boast show-offy multiple character plots which occasionally intersect but seem forced and often phony. His new film has an impressive cast and exciting locations: Rome, Paris and New York. Beautiful people in beautiful locations. Should be enough, right?

Liam Neeson plays Michael, a Pulitzer-prize winning author who is having an affair with a beautiful, younger woman named Anna (Olivia Wilde) who is both repelled by and attracted to the writer. As a writer herself, her interest in Michael isn't relegated to romance; she also seeks his authorial approbation, which he is reluctant to give after reading a short story she has submitted to him. Meanwhile, Michael is estranged from his wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) though he talks to her almost daily. She is well-aware of his affair with Anna but refuses to abandoned the marriage.

Another story is set in Rome, where a shady businessman Scott (Adrian Brody) steals fashion designs from top Italian designers for knock-offs manufactured in sweat-shops. He becomes involved with a gypsy woman (a culture known more appropriately as Roma) named Monika (Moran Atias), whose daughter is being held by Romanians. To get her daughter back, she must come up with 5,000 euros or risk her 8 year-old becoming a prostitute. Scott offers to help and in doing so, becomes hopelessly entangled in the dangerous effort to recover her daughter. As the story develops, it becomes increasingly clear Scott may be the target of an elaborate scam though he has fallen in love with Monika.

In yet another story, Mila Kunis' Julia is battling James Franco's Rick for visitation rights for her son, whose life she unintentionally imperiled when she demonstrated how he could possibly suffocate playing with a sleeping-bag. Though Rick is adamant about Julia not seeing the boy, Rick's girlfriend Sam sympathizes with the mother and eventually aids in her attempt to see him. Julia is her own worst enemy, as she can't hold a job for any period of time and is generally a mess. Assisting her legally is Theresa (Maria Bello); a tough, pragmatic lawyer who has little patience for Julia's irresponsibility.

You know Haggis will somehow have the various storylines and characters mingle in many contrived, unnatural ways. When Julia, working as a maid, scribbles an important address of where she is to meet her lawyer and Rick for a custody hearing, she accidentally leaves the paper in the hotel room, which just happens to be Michael's. He uses the same paper to write down his wife's phone number, which falls into Anna's hands then ultimately, back into Julia's later. Haggis works hard to make all this seem seamless, but like Crash, it screams overwrought plotting.

It also becomes strange when we know Julia is working in the Parisian hotel where Michael and Anna are keeping rooms though her custody hearing is in New York. This isn't a filmmaker's embarassing flub but another plot device too clever for its own good. How she can be in two places at once becomes clear later in the film, as does the other oddities in the story. What also is brought to light is why the stories all share a common theme of children in extremis.

It is Michael and Anna's story that serves as the sun in this solar system. Michael's head-games, in which Anna is a willing participant, begin to grow tiresome as the two lovers are on again, off again while his wife pleads for his return. We also learn Anna has been hiding a secret; one that offers a cliched explanation as to why she prefers older men like Michael. It comes off as cheap Freudian fallback and is an eye-roller.

Eventually everything and everyone is absorbed in the denouement which is one more Haggis-ism I couldn't endure. I guess I give him points for the attempt.

Because the stories are labored, many of the actor's performances appear over-boiled, but the the final scenes may explain that as well. Noone in the cast comes off as all that sincere though they try hard to sell their characters. Neeson, a very skilled actor, has trouble playing a convincing writer. Though his publisher informs him the quality of his writing has declined and finds his latest work unpublishable, he writes a chapter of new novel, which shamelessly co-opts his lover's personal life as content. This is all fine and good, but Michael's prose is so hackneyed, it couldn't even pose a qualitative challenge to Judith Krantz, though his publisher doesn't seem to notice.

I think Haggis would like to manage the multiple character/storylines with the skill, precision and power Altman once did in films like Nashville or Short Cuts. Unfortunately he lacks that directors unerring instinct for character and plausible, multiple plot streams.

When everything wrapped and the credits scrolled, I left the theater thinking how stunning Olivia Wilde looked, then I thought about what I needed from the A&P.