REVIEW: ‘Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice’ Delivers Solid Laughs But So-So Drama

Before the release of Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, director BenDavid Grabinski has terrible luck. He optioned his first script when he was only 22 and managed to land on the Black List survey of best unproduced scripts at 25, yet wasn’t able to see one of his scripts produced for nearly another decade. That film, Skiptrace, had a complicated production hindered by the Hong Kong-Mainland China conflict and the on-set drowning death of cinematographer Chan Kwok-hung.

His next script and feature directorial debut, Happily, lined up an impressive cast, solid reviews, and a premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to bump it to a much quieter release the following year. His new film, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, is the first time in 20 years that Grabinski (who has at least had better luck with television) has successfully gotten a feature film released without suffering some misfortune beyond his control.

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice centers on Mike (James Marsden), best known to his associates as Quick Draw Mike. He works for mobster Sosa (Keith David) as an enforcer, a job he hates even though he gets to work with his best friend Nick (Vince Vaughn), a loan shark. This job tension is complicating the duo’s friendship, as is the fact that Mike is secretly having an affair with Nick’s wife, Alice (Eiza González). To make things even worse, an alternate version of Nick has just arrived in a time machine from six months in the future.

Vince Vaughn shines in a dual performance.

Sosa’s son Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro) was just released from prison, and it turns out that Present Nick, having learned about the affair, has framed Mike as the rat who got Jimmy Boy incarcerated. Sosa wants revenge in blood, but Future Nick feels incredible guilt for his part in his friend’s future death and is determined to change the timeline. Future Nick needs Present Nick’s cooperation for the plan to work, so he kidnaps the latter in an attempt to secure his cooperation.

Vince Vaughn has shown his talent for dual performances before, but here he’s actually having to share scenes with himself consistently, which plenty of talented actors struggle with. Thankfully, he nails it. The special effects combining the two performances onscreen are largely seamless. Still, Vaughn’s performance is what really sells it, with the actor’s takes on Future Nick and Present Nick being distinct enough for viewers to tell the characters apart easily but just similar enough to be believable as two different versions of the same man.

Marsden is charming in his role, bringing a down-to-earth feel to the film that makes the endless violence feel just casual enough for the jokes to keep landing. González consistently manages the film’s best comedic moments. And Tatro, as well as supporting players Ben Schwartz, Emily Hampshire, and Arturo Castro, all get some decent jokes in.

Mike & Nick, & Nick & Alice struggle when asked to balance competing tones.

Unfortunately, even this strong a cast isn’t able to course correct Mike & Nick, & Nick & Alice’s mishandling of its more dramatic moments. Aside from Vaughn, the only actor who consistently nails the film’s less comedic scenes is David. The actor is outstanding in the role, bringing enough menace and gravitas to his performance that his cruelty works just as well as his punchlines. But even David’s talent can’t save the scenes where he’s expected to deliver dramatic exposition to costars who are only given quips.

This inconsistency would be fine if Mike & Nick, & Nick & Alice were a full-on comedy. Unfortunately, Grabinski wrote a script that is equally dedicated to being a sci-fi mob thriller but forgot to match that with directing. Vaughn and David show it’s entirely possible to balance the film’s comedic and dramatic elements. Still, the rest of the cast is never really allowed to do the same. A more even hand would have gone a long way toward getting these disparate elements to work together instead of feeling like there are two different films competing for the same screen.

At the same time, it’s hard to fault BenDavid Grabinski for biting off more genres than he can chew. The ambition of the film is endearing, and one can hardly blame the guy for wanting to go all out for his first major studio production when he’s had such a rough road getting his independent work to theaters. For fans of comedy, the comedic strengths of Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice and the ensemble are more than enough to make this a worthwhile watch. But if you’re specifically thinking of watching this for the science fiction or mob elements, don’t.

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+.