More than "Nice"

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2016)

"The Nice Guys" is a very amusing detective story set in the stylish 1970ies with a mischievous detective duo, who has more luck than brains, and a touch of porn and violence.
Ryan Gosling, who played the personification of coolness in "Drive", now shows his humorous side by playing the over-the-hill private investigator Holland March, a single father who doesn't mind looking for people who he knows are already dead just for the sake of earning some money, a laxity that more than once has brought trouble upon him and one of those situations also makes him cross paths with Russell Crowe's character Jackson Healy, a rather moody, professional thug who likes letting his fists speak for himself and who else would be more suitable for the role than the notoriously choleric Russell Crowe?
So together they form a duo as a new case forces them to cooperate and from that moment on they literally stumble upon one trace leading to another and evermore get themselves entangled in the snares of a big political conspiracy which of course surpasses their skills by far and the way in which they nevertheless manage to gain the upper hand gives cause for very comedic moments and memorable lines. The story may be confusing at first but in the end everything adds up convincingly, only the conventional finale is a letdown so to speak.
What, to me, makes the movie stand out is the fact that the duo is actually a trio if you count March's daughter, the very smart, cheeky Holly, superbly played by A. Rice, she plays a very active part in the movie and often demonstrates a higher level of maturity than those two guys together.
I'm very optimistic that this won't be the last case of "The Nice Guys" we'll see.