Summary
Nice Girls is too try-hard and falls apart with a highly complex, conspiratorial plot.
I know what Nice Girls is trying to do, though it’s not immediately apparent despite the flagrant title. It’s a female-led comedy team-up movie that adds the action of Ocean’s 8 with the goofiness of The Heat.
Established cop Leo (Alice Taglioni) learns that her colleague and brother have been killed in Hamburg. Despite being ordered to step down from the case, she is forced to investigate her brother’s death with German cop Mélanie (Stéfi Celma). However, both cops, despite their resistance to each other, realize that their investigation is leading to an ominous threat in Nice.
We can all agree that chemistry is important, especially in team-up movies. I understand that Nice Girls is meant to evolve into the “BFF” vibe, but I never felt it. The script doesn’t help; it’s almost as if the director had no intention of assisting the cast in embracing their characters. The beginnings of this female cop team-up story make Leo dumbfounded that Mélanie can speak French despite being German like that’s impossible.
But as the movie wears on Mélanie is desperate for Leo to like her, and it becomes apparent why late into the second act. The number of times the script repeats itself with “We are BFFs, right?” almost forces the audience to enjoy the cohesiveness between the two characters. The trouble here is that no chemistry or anything is satisfying about these two characters working together.
The film is also called Nice Girls, so with that, you’d expect the two leads to be the main focus. And for the most part, they are, and, admittedly, their action set-pieces are decent for a throwaway streaming film, but for some odd reason, the team decided to make the story as batsh*t crazy as possible to the point that the complexity is exhausting.
Imagine my face when I was thrust into a world where Leo’s brother Ludo was killed by an assailant that is somehow intricately linked to a climate change conspiracy that is transpiring on the eve of a Green Summit. By the time the two women learn of who killed Ludo, your mind will be frazzled. The real villain is the last boss, and it’s terribly underwhelming. There was no real need to allow the script to be a twisted James Bond model mashed into an action comedy.
This is not worth watching, even if you are a fan of female team-ups. Rewatch Mean Girls or Hustlers — something with substance and vibe.
And this is no criticism of the actresses. I’m sure they wanted to have fun and make a good movie, but they’ve been terribly let down.
