When I first saw the preview for this film, I was initially excited because I thought that it looked funny. My initial excitement was immediately followed with the concern that all of the funny parts would be in the trailer leaving the rest of the movie heavy and/or boring. I was particularly curious to see Ryan Gosling acting as an apparent "bumbling idiot" as I'm more familiar with his more dramatic roles than comedic roles. My optimism won out especially as my amusement didn't dissipate with each viewing of the trailer.
This film takes place in 1977 Los Angeles. The film opens with a car crash and doesn't really slow down from there. There are parts without action but I would say that this film was very well paced. An incompetent PI named Holland March (played by Ryan Gosling) is our narrator for a bit. It turns out that he is a single father, struggling with guilt and alcoholism as a result of his wife's death in a house fire. He has a precocious, intelligent thirteen year old daughter named Holly (played by Angourie Rice) who acts as his assistant at times and chauffer.
March is investigating the "disappearance" of a porn star named Misty Mountains (played by Murielle Telio). As far as March (and the rest of the world) is concerned Misty killed herself in the car crash that the film opens with but her aunt insists that she saw her two days after her death. Further the aunt insists that March find her.
While March is "working" on that case he also looks for another missing young woman named Amelia (played by Margaret Qualley). During March's search for Amelia he crosses paths with a tough guy named Jackson Healy (played by Russell Crowe).
Healy is sort of a private eye himself but he is more of a tough guy that you send in to send a "message". The "message" is usually delivered in a very painful way. If the "message" is ignored Healy will probably come back and there won't be a second chance.
Healy is sent to March to give him a "message" which features the most comical arm breaking scene that I have seen in a film so far. March is told to stop searching for Amelia or else. March agrees and Healy leaves him thinking the job is all settled. Shortly afterwards Jackson is "visited" by a couple of tough guys who want to send him a message to not look for Amelia as well. During the course of the fight, the lead bad guy (played by Beau Knapp) gets blue ink on his face thus resulting in his title Blueface for the rest of the picture.
Healy is bothered by this sudden interest in Amelia and returns to March to have him search for Amelia. After observing March's incompetence and alcoholic tendencies, Healy reluctantly teams up with March to figure out what is the reason behind the interest in Amelia and how it ties in to the recent string of tragic "accidental" deaths that seem to have happened with all of the people closely connected to Amelia.
I thought that this film was hilarious. Ryan Gosling was almost too good at being an idiot and Russell Crowe was a great straight man to him. I really hope that these two enjoyed making the picture together and that they would do more comedies like this one. The plot was very well thought out and executed I think. I also liked that even though there were sincerely heavy aspects to this picture, they were dealt with in a way that never dragged the picture down but instead added to it.
Not for younger audiences of course but all in all a very enjoyable film.
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