Review: "The Fall Guy" Starts Summer Off Right

by Christopher James

It’s funny that a movie that’s a love letter to the unsung heroes behind our favorite movies succeeds mostly due to the star wattage of two A-Listers. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are a delight to watch in the otherwise sweet, but standard, action-romance-comedy The Fall Guy. Not every ingredient works, but you might miss it thanks to the commitment and charm of Gosling and Blunt. The Fall Guy is a strong way to kick off summer movie blockbuster season...

Hollywood stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) has carved out a nice place in Hollywood for himself. He’s the official stuntman for the narcissistic action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and has been having an on-set romance with camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). All that comes to an end when a stunt goes wrong and Colt breaks his back… and his reputation.

Eighteen months past and he’s let his burgeoning relationship with Jody die while he accepts a new job as a valet. One fateful day, he gets a call from producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) asking him to double for Tom on a new movie in Australia. Colt refuses until he hears that it’s the first movie that Jody is directing and she needs his help. When arriving on set, Colt realizes that Jody didn’t know that he was coming. She’s less than excited to see him after he blew her off and still harbors some resentment.

Gail’s motives are a bit more self-serving. Tom has gone missing and she thinks that Colt will be the best person to go searching around Australia for the missing star. Wanting to win Jody back, Colt takes on the mission, with his friend and stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke) in tow. With the star gone, Jody must hold down the fort on set and keep the studio at bay.

First and foremost, The Fall Guy provides a strong Barbie follow up for Ryan Gosling. He gets to once again earnestly stretch his comic chops with an extra side of sensitivity. His Colt is incredibly rootable, a sweet, caring guy trying to repair his ego alongside his body. This pairs well with Blunt’s nimble comic timing and winning smile. She manages to wring laughs and smiles out of being the “straight man” on set, responding to chaos with a deep breath and a desire to empower. They are best when on screen together, but the movie doesn’t offer enough of these opportunities to exploit this. Yet, there are some clever ways they bridge the two storylines together. A fun karaoke rendition of “Against All Odds” by Jody is intercut with a Fast and the Furious-esque sequence where Gosling bounces between swerving cars towing heavy machinery.

As the previous sentence suggests, the movie sure lives up to its name. There are stunts galore, with Ryan Gosling taking more hits than ever before. Many of the action set-pieces grow tiresome, particularly in the second act which separates our leads and finds Gosling’s Colt in a near constant run from nameless buff cronies. Director (and former stuntman) David Leitch (Bullet Train) constructs some good moments, but can’t quite seem to pace the movie appropriately. However, a rousing third act brings it all home as the action returns to the movie set. There’s quite a lot of fun to be had with Australia’s Arakkis-lite dunes and the iconography of big budget Hollywood sets. 

Beyond the cliches and bloated moments, it’s hard to fault The Fall Guy. It doesn’t just love its leads, but it has a joyous admiration for stunt people and for filmmaking. Having its heart in the right place, The Fall Guy winds up being a pleasant blockbuster tonic to the superhero glut and exploding planets. It’s a true four quadrant blockbuster - one that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but knows how to properly entertain its audience. B-

The Fall Guy opens in theaters everywhere Friday, May 3rd and is distributed by Universal Pictures.

Comments

[thevoid99]

Ryan Gosling is so hot right now.

[McGill]

We saw it and had fun. It’s great light summer fare.

I am annoyed at the post-opening plethora of comments about how “it didn’t make enough money”. Please. This movie will be a re-watch for this summer and some years to come.

[G.Shaq]

What a delight! I had such a great time. Loved the referential nature, even if the 3rd act gets so meta is loses itself in one too many action scenes. Ryan Gosling is in peak, peak form.