I mentioned when I watched The Other Guys that I might have conflated the two films. And I had in my head that I wanted to watch this film. So I picked it up recently (undocumented on this blog, so probably the beginning of August when I was Christmas shopping). And a little ways into it, I thought I’ve seen this film before. As it’s not documented on this blog and not in the video library, I presume I rented it from video store six or seven years ago. And I’d forgotten it.
The film is nominally set in 1977, but it did not trigger any anemoia in me as the depth of the representation was pretty superficial. Ryan Gosling plays an alcoholic PI of dubious morals and utility who has been hired to track down a girl named Amelia. Russel Crowe plays a thug for hire whom Amelia hires to get the PI off of her back–which he gets via thuggery. But other thugs waylay Crowe’s Healy, so he thinks Amelia might be in real danger. So they team up, and some set pieces, and….
Well, you know, the whole thing is ultimately forgettable. The film is set in the late 1970s, but really doesn’t capture the time. It does allow them to put o on the end of porno and feature a plot that revolves around Detroit automakers working with corrupt government officials from the Department of Justice (?) to prevent catalytic converters from being mandated, and the daughter of a government official (Amelia!) makes a combination porno film that exposes the collusion and corruption. But people related to the film start dying, and….
Well, don’t think too much about it. Enjoy Gosling and Crowe having a good time.
And, if you’re like me, forget the whole thing and enjoy it again later.
