The Fall Guy

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Fall Guy follows Colt Seavers, a stuntman who suffers a severe onset injury that destroys his life and his relationship with upcoming director, Jody Moreno. Now healed, Colt has a chance to rekindle his love with Jody when he is invited back to be a stuntman in her big blockbuster project. The only problem is the lead actor is missing in action, and it's going to be down to Colt to find him and save Jody's film.

 

This is a film that truly loves blockbuster cinema production, like through and through, there is a tremendous amount of dedication to the craft here. Over the course of the movie there are tributes to various departments, a major breakdown of what a shooting day can look like, examples of the production process and even playful jabs at how studios interfere in big productions like this. The meat of this love is very notably geared towards stunt work and how these performers are the backbone of major action cinema. You get a detailed view of safety measures, how stunts are developed and the multiple stunts that can be worked into a film. Even the little references, quotes or nods to other blockbuster productions shows nice insight and passion went into The Fall Guy. The core chemistry of Colt and Jody is also a major driving force; in a film where action is the big spotlight, it's actually the romance that held my attention more. The characters are genuinely very sweet, and work well for one another in a way that makes you believe in them. I liked that their conflict, that which divides them for a time, is very understandable but also something they can be expected to work through together. The Fall Guy is also ceaselessly funny, there are a lot of great gags in this; which is certainly the sort of script I expect David Leitch to gravitate to these days.

The score for the film keeps a nice central theme to Kiss' 'I Was Made For Lovin' You' which really kept the fated love story very present throughout. I also thought the soundtrack for this film was incredible, it had a rough and rugged 80s vibe at times, and at others a very modern bleeding heart sound like Taylor Swift's 'All Too Well'.

 

Emily Blunt, who played Jody Moreno, is such a sweet character who just seems entirely fun and witty as this up-and-coming director; Blunt plays a role who really backs herself but is also really joyful and sincere throughout.  Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played Tom Ryder, really has a blast leaning into the self-absorbed celebrity superstar; Taylor-Johnson's persona talks a big talk but is a bit of a flake under pressure, which is a nice change in type for him. Teresa Palmer, who played Iggy Starr, is a really fun role that leans into the celebrity girlfriend stereotype a bit; watching her bicker with and chastise Gosling is quite the memorable scene. Winston Duke, who played Dan Tucker, is a character who gets to be dedicated to just loving cinema, which feels wonderful to watch; I could honestly watch Duke deliver famous movie quotes back and forth with gosling all day long. Matuse, who played Doone, is quite the fun minor drug dealer character role; his sort of feigned bromance with Gosling's stunt performer makes him an intriguing figure. Adam Dunn, who played Nigel, is one of the funniest characters in the cast in my opinion; his overly-stressed AD character who goes from barking commands to losing himself to karaoke makes for a hell of a time.

However, the best performance came from Ryan Gosling, who played Colt Seavers. Gosling is on a real career high right now, buzzing off of Barbie, I think it'd be hard to go wrong with whatever script he chose. In Colt, we get a quietly charismatic and flirtatious stuntman who has such positive feelings of love and has to grapple with the fallout from losing that connection. Seeing Colt go from a man on top of the world at the start of the film to someone very downtrodden takes you to the pit with him. Yet, the hope and desire Gosling brings as his role returns to see Jody at her new film is this invigorating sensation that fuels the audience for the whole film. Colt can be a bit of an adorable dork, stumbling into things poorly or finding the wrong words before the right ones, but he's an easy underdog to root for. Watching his determination to fight for Jody, save her film and win her back is a classic character type, but one that Gosling really fleshes out and makes his own.

I like an action movie that has heart at its core, but I also like an action blockbuster that tries to find some fresh elements or plot points. Where The Fall Guy really falters for me is the action storyline, which is an outlandish crime piece that just feels a bit too generic for its own good. Colt running around trying to find Tom Ryder only to come face to face with a cartoonish criminal underworld and a murder conspiracy that is more than a little predictable is quite disappointing. The movie keeps dragging out the motives and actions of the antagonists to solidify them as the villains, but it makes the whole movie a lot harder to buy into.

The way this film is shot is surprisingly ugly given how much varied stunt work there is to cover. There are so many big blocky wides that repeat after one another, it's rare to see any effort to get creative visually or show a little variety from scene to scene. The editing was a real let-down too; setting a surprisingly slow pace for the type of movie this is and also chopping between far too many sequences in a scene at times. I also thought the transitions between scenes wasn't consistently very good, at times the shifts in location would be entirely jarring.

Hannah Waddingham, who played Gail Meyer, really just hams up the overbearing producer figure from her first scene onwards; this is a character that just gets worse as her role is brought into the action plot more and more. Stephanie Hsu, who played Alma Milan, is a role that just doesn't fit all that nicely into the movie; her character is just there to give Gosling a phone, and otherwise she makes for an odd sticking point in a couple of scenes. Ben Knight, who played Dressler, is entirely forgettable as the big muscle-bound goon of the film; Knight just seems capable of bringing generic anger and a menacing slower to his role.

 

The chemistry between Blunt and Gosling paired with the genuine love of major-motion Hollywood filmmaking, especially stunt work, makes this a gem to watch. I would give The Fall Guy a 7.5/10.