Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is the platonic idea of an original film because it remixes, refurbishes, and reinvents multiple genres without leaning too hard in one direction. On first glance, the second feature from writer/director Ben David Grabinski is an homage to the 1990s crime thrillers that fetishized gangsters and non-linear storytelling; it began with Pulp Fiction and True Romance, and led to imitators that were great (Go), adequate (The Way of the Gun), and unwatchable (The Boondock Saints). Although there’s a high-concept sci-fi bent that could’ve single-handedly elevated Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice above being a pastiche of that era, it’s Grabinski’s willingness to be silly and sincere that’s most refreshing. There’s dark comedy that isn’t aggressively nasty, popular culture references that aren’t nostalgia-bait, and sentimental moments that avoid being hackneyed. Character-based relationship comedies, old-fashioned mob flicks, and original sci-fi films are what the industry desperately needs more of, and Grabinski managed to merge them all into a complete package.
It’s less than 10 minutes into Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice that the film has announced itself as more interested in snappy banter than try-hard ultra-violence. The loan shark Mike (James Marsden) and the career criminal Nick (Vince Vaughn) get into a semi-heated debate about the best way to subdue a hostage; the joke isn’t that they’re vicious psychopaths with pent-up desires to hurt people, but that these are two goofballs who now treat criminality as their day job. Mike’s concerned because he’s in the midst of an affair with Nick’s wife, Alice (Eiza Gonzalez), but he wasn’t brought along to a job because of a romantic feud. Instead, Nick’s revealed to have been sent six months from the future to stop his past self from making a mistake that he’ll instantly regret. Mike, both versions of Nick, and Alice are now on the same side because the kingpin Sosa (Keith David) has realized there’s a rat in his organization.
Time travel’s among the most challenging theoretical concepts to explain because it can come across as lazily underwritten or too obsessed with its own mythology; while there needs to be some explanation of how decisions will ripple into the future, it can be exhausting to include a whiteboard of different realities in the vein of Back to the Future. Grabinski’s best decision in this regard is to have all of the characters accept that time travel exists, which is explained by their mutual connection to the quirky inventor Symon (Ben Schwartz). Since there’s a gap of time that isn’t used to over-explain the premise, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice has fun with the practical questions involved with their being two Nicks; is cell phone reception sustained into the future, would future Nick bear the bruises of his past self, and is six months enough time for someone to change their self-destructive path?
Nick isn’t stung by his wife’s affair because he’s had his own infidelities, but his future self has learned that mutually-assured destruction won’t do anyone any favors. People only recognize what they have once it is gone, and Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice had a main character who has the unique opportunity to right those wrongs. To depict a morally dubious anti-hero on both sides of a breakthrough is a task that Vaughn is unusually fit for, given that his best work has been in either broad comedies and contemporary crime thrillers. Vaughn had become a caricature of himself in his post-Wedding Crashers comedies, but wasn’t totally comfortable within the gritty neo-noir roles that were offered to him either. Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is somewhere in the middle between those extremes, and it might be the best work that Vaughn has done since Swingers.
Although the double-act of Vaughn’s performance is the most marketable element of Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, Marsden is still the lead. He’s another actor who was given so many generic heartthrob roles that he had to swing back around into knowing, self-deprecating comedy roles (most notably as a fictional version of himself in Jury Duty) in order to be relevant. Marsden’s comfortable enough trading one-liners with Vaughn, but his strengths as a charismatic nice guy who was dealt a tough deal come across within Mike’s character arc. It’s believable that Mike got mixed up in a nasty world because he never had the self-respect to stand up for himself, and it's just as tenable that his connection with Alice would be reason enough to choose a different path. What’s been hidden from the marketing of Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is that, in spite of its bold claims of time travel and R-rated action, it’s also a tender story about discovering the perfect partner late in life.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is exhilarating when its narrative is simply unfolding because there always seems to be another shoe to drop; whether its characters knowing things they were supposedly unaware of, complications that arise from there being two Nicks, or the ever-expanding cast of character actors (including a 1980s action star who has a cameo), Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is complex enough to demand it audience pay attention. It might be slightly easier to glaze over the action scenes because they’re more straightforward, but Grabinski has a directorial style that favors crisp movement over shaky camerawork.
What Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice will likely catch the most criticism for is its near-constant array of references, including a musical homage to Oliver & Company and an extended discussion about Gilmore Girls. There’s reason to be cautious about this type of humor, but there’s a difference between what Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice does and the empty shell of self-awareness in something like Free Guy. Grabinski wrote characters who’d feasibly have a conversation about a television show that they’ve all watched, and thus their references are more naturalistic. Those who lack the context for references to Big Trouble in Little China, Alf, and Oasis’ (What's the Story) Morning Glory? might be temporarily lost, but it's not enough to ruin what’s otherwise a very accessible film.