Movie Review: The Fall Guy

While the start of Summer itself is still well over a month away, for Hollywood, Summer movie season has officially begun, and the first blockbuster hopeful out of the gate this year is The Fall Guy, an action-packed spectacle with a bit of romcom thrown in to try and garner a four quadrant hit. I can’t say whether it will prove financially successful or not, but they did manage to craft a fun ride with a genuinely satisfying ending.

Stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is one of the best at what he does and has been megastar Tomy Ryder’s (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) exclusive stunt double for years. During one shoot with his girlfriend, camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), something goes wrong during a major stunt and he finds himself with a broken back. Convinced it was his fault and dealing with depression, he cuts off everyone he knows and hides away from the world, working as a valet to get by. Then, out of the blue, Ryder’s producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) calls him up begging him to fly to Sydney to resume working with the actor. He initially refuses, but when she informs him that the film is being directed by Jody, a job which had always been her dream, he hops on a plane and heads to Australia.

Once there, Jody is less than thrilled to see him, still stinging from his abrupt disappearance, but she is persuaded to let him stay. Gail reveals to Colt that the real reason she coerced him into coming to set was because Ryder has gone missing and she needs him to find him, a plan that confounds him as much as it does anyone with a brain (her reasoning becomes clear later), but one that he ultimately relents to and takes on. It becomes apparent that Ryder had become mixed up with some very shady characters and Colt finds himself caught up in an increasingly dangerous plot that sees him fighting his way around Sydney, but he refuses to give up in the hopes that he can return the talented but arrogant star to set and save Jody’s dream project from being cancelled.

The initial set-up can sometimes drag a little bit, and the core plot that Colt becomes embroiled in strains credulity, but once the action really gets going at full steam that’s all easily overlooked. Gosling and Blunt have a natural chemistry with each other that makes their romance believable, and it’s impossible not to root for the duo to get back together. Likewise, Gosling exudes the perfect kind of goofy swagger for the story. The jokes here could have used some more work, but he proves endearing enough to sell them most of the time anyway.

What really makes the movie shine though is the stunt work. Himself a former stuntman, director David Leitch intended this to be an ode to the people who risk life and limb for film and he has staged some truly incredible set pieces to do so. A behind-the-scenes montage during the end credits showing how they pulled them off without a heavy reliance on CGI only makes them more impressive.

Leitch’s style eschews a lot of the quick cuts that were once trendy in action movies, making sure that the audience is able to easily focus on fights and car chases without getting lost. He does add some fun flourishes though, especially during one fight sequence in which Colt had been drugged by an enemy and begins seeing stars explode from the bad guys’ faces when he hits them.

Despite a few flaws this is a solidly enjoyable movie, that only gets better as it goes along, building to the sort of over-the-top action you would expect from the director of Bullet Train. Even the lesser characters get their moments to shine and the sense of camaraderie among them makes them feel like people you would genuinely want to know. Viewers who enjoyed movies like Romancing the Stone or The Lost City will have a blast with The Fall Guy, and most will walk out of the cinema with a smile on their faces. At one point a character points out that there is no Academy Award for stunt work, an omission that this movie makes feel especially egregious, but if there was one this feels like it would be a shoo-in. ★★★★