Plot: It's early 1977 Los Angeles. Those that know him probably consider Holland March, a widower, former police officer and heavy drinker, the worst private detective they know. He's also not the greatest father in his thirteen year old daughter Holly March often having to act the adult in the family, although he does bilk clients to provide a roof over his and Holly's heads, their collective, yet seemingly never to be realized plan to rebuild their burnt down house while they live in a rental in the Hollywood Hills. A man who literally lives by his fists, Jackson Healy is a freelance enforcer, he largely sticking up for those at risk, although for the price he specifies, no less. Jackson and Holland's paths cross when they have a mutual person of interest, a young woman named Amelia, as she has hired Jackson to protect her against two unknown men who have been following her, and as she is associated to a missing woman's case on which Holland is working. That case is of porn actress Misty Mountains, whose aunt asked Holland to locate her, the nearsighted aunt who swears she saw Misty two days after she was known to have been killed in a very high profile car accident. Ultimately, Amelia too goes missing, Jackson and Holland who decide to join forces to locate her, she probably in danger of being killed by those two now not so unknown men and perhaps by others pulling their strings behind the scenes, Jackson and Holland possibly getting caught in the crossfire in the process. Often along for the ride is Holly, who feels she can often be of use to them in people opening up to her about information as an innocent kid instead of two adult white guys. The probability that Amelia is in danger becomes more clear when almost everyone associated with Misty's last movie end up dead, Amelia who does have a connection to it. Eventually, they learn of the reason Amelia has gone into hiding, which goes against what most people would consider common logic. However, Jackson, Holland and Holly have to sift through the rhetoric to discover the truth.
Alternative Plot: Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is a down-on-his-luck private eye in 1977 Los Angeles. Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) is a hired enforcer who hurts people for a living. Fate turns them into unlikely partners after a young woman named Amelia (Margaret Qualley) mysteriously disappears. Healy and March soon learn the hard way that some dangerous people are also looking for Amelia. Their investigation takes them to dark places as anyone else who gets involved in the case seems to wind up dead.
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