With merely just the incredible chemistry of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, ‘The Fall Guy’ is already an enjoyable movie to watch. The dynamic between these two Hollywood superstars is simply cinematic gold. But what elevates the film even further is that the movie offers a crazy, wild ride of a story that is never quite focused on being fully an action film, fully a comedy, or fully a romance. All three of its genres are playing off and grabbing screentime that it becomes so fun to watch. It’s never just one thing and never tries to be. The film (and the filmmakers) are having so much fun making this crazy love letter to stunt men and the art of movie stunts that it gets infectious and transfers to the audience.
‘The Fall Guy’ is not afraid to be silly. And that is exactly where Ryan Gosling excels in. He (and director David Leitch) are aware of how good-looking he is and how powerful his charisma is but they are not beholden to it. The fact that Gosling is unafraid to make fun of himself and of looking silly adds a layer to the film’s tone that allows it to go absolutely bonkers.
It’s the love story between Gosling’s Colt Seavers, a stunt man, who is dating a camera operator, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) when a stunt goes wrong, and he finds himself out of the industry for quite some time. He finally gets a call to get back to work for Jody’s directorial debut. Instead, he discovers that the lead star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is missing, and he decides to try and find him to save Jody’s film from getting canceled.
But what he finds leads him to a dangerous world involving drugs and murder and he must use his stunt and fight training to get out of trouble and stop it from spreading around to everyone in the set, most especially Jody.
The way by which the film escalates the violence, and the action sequences is really unrealistic but because the film had opened it up already with so much silliness, it gets away with it and you sit back and accept it all and have fun. Director David Leitch has said that this movie is his love letter to stunts and so the escalation allows him to go crazy with all the practical stunts that he does in this movie (including a huge scene that closed off the streets of Sydney for days and also, what I found on the internet, a report saying that they broke a Guinness World Record for the most cannon rolls performed in a car.). It’s explosive, it’s hard-hitting, fast-paced, and exciting.
But it’s also a barrel of laughs and quite romantic, at some point. There are short montages and flashbacks that pepper that film when Colt recalls his relationship with Jody that is just inaudible, set to music, and Blunt and Gosling are just being sweet and funny to each other, and it looks so real. It’s just these short moments with no bigger context except two people falling in love and it works. It’s the kind of old-school cinematic magic that happens when you have two ridiculously good-looking and charming actors who manage to deliver incredible chemistry on set.
So, while it’s hard to take the film seriously, and not that you should, there’s just so much to enjoy in this movie. The stunts get bigger and bigger. Narratively, it doesn’t make any sense but cinematically, you’re just screaming and cheering in enjoyment because it’s what good, mainstream fun in the cinema was meant to feel like.
It’s not a perfect movie but it’s the perfect kind of film to bring a date or to watch with your friends and with all its movie references, unafraid to get silly and meta, and how genuine it is in its love for stunts and stunt performers, it really is a movie to watch in the cinema.
My Rating:
The Fall Guy is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.
