A down-and-out stuntman must find the missing star of his ex-girlfriend’s blockbuster film.
Chuck says:
For years, the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures has been lobbying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a category recognizing the work of their members at the annual Oscars Ceremony. Unfortunately, their efforts have fallen on deaf ears, though the Academy has added a new category for Best Casting Director (?). During last year’s Oscar ceremony, a brief montage of action work from 2023 movies was played to placate the association. Good job AMPAS!
That Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt presented this montage was no accident, as they star in David Leitch’s “The Fall Guy,” a true tribute to the stunt performers who risk life and limb to make their on-screen counterparts look good. A former stuntman himself, the director’s inside knowledge proves invaluable in bringing not simply a verisimilitude to the film but an appreciation for the craft that goes into their work.
Gosling is Colt Seavers, the best of the best where barrel rolls and being set on fire is concerned. He’s also a bit cocky, which only adds to his allure, something assistant director Jody Moreno (Blunt) finds herself unable to resist. The attraction is mutual, and it looks as if sparks will fly between them, that is until an accident on the film they are shooting puts him the hospital and shatters his confidence.
Going into exile, their budding relationship is quashed and after 18 months, Seavers’ life is in shambles. Reduced to working as a valet at a posh Hollywood eatery – which sets up one of the film’s best moments – he’s become a stuntman in need not simply of a building to jump off, but Wone searching for a way to rekindle the joy he found in doing so. A phone call from producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) provides an unexpected lifeline. Her new film, an overblown sci-fi epic named “Metal Storm,” has run into some trouble and the director has requested his services. That director just happens to be Moreno.
Once Seavers shows up on the set, he realizes Moreno didn’t request him, setting up a sense of tension between the two that results in some of the movie’s biggest laughs. Seems Meyer needs the fall guy to keep an eye on actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the movie star he’s doubled for his entire career. His behavior has been erratic, and the producer’s fears prove right when the insecure thespian disappears, putting Moreno’s production in jeopardy. Looking to get back in her good graces and save the day, Seavers sets out to find the missing actor.
Nothing is quite as it seems and the script by David Pierce proves too clever by half. The reason behind Ryder’s disappearance is more complicated than it needs to be and ultimately proves tiresome. However, the script’s saving grace are its characters, an eccentric menagerie of exaggerated (?) Hollywood stereotypes the cast attack with obvious relish. Taylor-Johnson and Teresa Palmer as Iggy Starr rend the scenery as their characters’ narcissism leads to one outlandish act after another, while Waddingham’s Meyer makes the stress a member of a bomb squad deals with seem like a cakewalk compared to that of a film producer. Stephanie Hsu as Moreno’s assistant and Winston Duke as Seavers’ fellow stuntman have moments as well, but both are underused.
And then, of course, there are the stunts which are, while not spectacular per se, well-done and serve their purpose. A wild car chase that finds Seavers holding on for dear life as he’s being drug through the streets of Sydney is the highlight, while a barrel-roll sequence on a beach – which actually set a record for must turns – proves impressive as well. A fistfight seen through the eyes of our hero, after he’s accidentally taken a psychedelic is a pleasant distraction, though a helicopter duel at movie’s end proves tiresome.
Like all of Leitch’s films, this one overstays its welcome, third-act bloat rearing its ugly head, robbing the movie of some of its charm. However, Gosling and Blunt keep us hooked until the end, their interactions a delight from the first frame to the last. The sparks that fly between them – whether sexual or comedic – are palpable, their timing impeccable. In the end, “The Fall Guy” serving as an introduction to a screen pairing that will hopefully be repeated as well as a long overdue tribute to the men and women who make our screen idols seem tougher than they are.
3 Stars
Pam says:
If ever a love letter was written in movie form to all the stunt professionals, both men and women, “The Fall Guy” is it. While it’s been an obvious oversight for decades that the Academy has omitted Best Stunt Person as a category, perhaps this movie will right that wrong.
Starring Ryan Gosling as stunt double Colt Seavers for the superficial action movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his life changes when a stunt goes wrong. Disappearing from not only the Hollywood world but also his love life focused upon cinematographer Jody (Emily Blunt), Colt resurfaces at the beckoning of Gail (Hannah Waddingham) who entices him with his one true love who now sits in the director’s seat of an epic space love story being filmed in Australia. However, Ryder, the star, has gone missing and Colt finds himself in a real life action adventure, fighting for his life and his love.
The premise of the story itself isn’t anything new; boy and girl fall in love, they become separated only to find themselves attempting to find one another again because, well, because it’s true love. Where “The Fall Guy” becomes clever is through its humor and comedic parallel lines of fictional story representing fictional real-life events. We’ve got Jody’s movie that mimics her own love but set in the future with an alien and a space cowboy aka Jody and Colt. As he steps onto the set, their banter and public display of what happened in their past charms us into rooting for this couple to find one another again.
“The Fall Guy” also captures the importance of all those people we never see; the stunt people. There are more stunts in this movie than all the “Mission Impossible” films put together. It’s the focus of the film and I loved every single stunt, hoping for more in the next scene and I got it. With the stunts, the movie also shouts out to the cinematographers and how their skill in capturing a scene changes and catapults the story into those epic and jaw-dropping moments.
Within all of this, we have a romantic story as well, thankfully portrayed by two actors who have natural chemistry and also know how to have fun in a movie. Blunt embodies the female director who wants nothing more than to prove that she’s been rightly given a shot at creating an epic movie filled with explosions and crashes. She’s fierce yet vulnerable as she attempts to lead her cast and crew. And we always see a twinkle in her eye, loving her own action and fight scenes. Of course, Gosling can saunter onto any set and charm everyone involved including the viewers and he confidently does so as Colt Seavers. He, too, is having a blast with this role, hitting every mark and adding his own comedic style to his lines to make us chuckle.
With a story like “The Fall Guy,” there are plenty of villains to go around, even a few we don’t anticipate. This sets up both large and small scale stunts such as a boat jumping through fire, car flips and crashes, and even some well-choreographed hand to hand combat scenes. This list of stunts seems endless, but never, never boring. The levity of the story and the situations that fit, no matter how reckless or violent, keep us engaged until the very end.
And speaking of the very end, stick around for the credits as you won’t want to miss a special prologue segment…there’s a post-it note foreshadowing if you can catch it. “The Fall Guy” is the perfect escape movie as it’s just down-right good fun.
3 Stars
