The Fall Guy (2024)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt should star in every movie together from now until the end of time.
Reminds you of why we all love going to the movies - you get action, romance, comedy, suspense, double-crosses, an amazing dog, nostalgia and a movie not taking itself too seriously.
Carries an undeniable charm and energy from start to finish that just hooks you.
NO
The screenplay is a bit wobbly, especially when digging into the subplots which cause the film to lose focus and become the type of action movie The Fall Guy is oftentimes trying to satirize.
While touted as a tribute to the stunt performers who often serve as the movie industry’s backbone, and it is nice to see a movie built around their craft, by narrowing the focus on one stunt performer, your tribute becomes more about a fictional character than an entire industry of professionals.
Runs a bit long at 126 minutes and for a movie this busy, with these subplots, less can certainly mean more.
OUR REVIEW
While not quite sticking to its intended premise of ensuring stunt performers finally earn all the accolades and acclaim they so richly deserve, The Fall Guy is nonetheless a major crowd pleaser. Charming, often hilarious, with inventive action sequences and the wonderful Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt generating great chemistry together, director David Leitch’s kickoff to the 2024 Summer Movie Season should become a bona fide hit.
While stunt work and stunt performers are a part of The Fall Guy’s story, we really focus on one main individual, Colt Seavers (Gosling). Known for his Guinness Book of World Record-type stunts and willingness to do anything asked of him, as long as he has his coffee, Colt is the every-film stunt person for A-list superstar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Ryder is a narcissist, but Seavers is also something of a cocky daredevil who has recently started a relationship with Jody Moreno (Blunt), an assistant director on the set of Ryder’s latest film. When an accident goes terribly wrong one day on set, Colt’s injuries cause him to retreat from the movie business and ghost everyone. A year-and-a-half later he is parking cars as a valet for a local restaurant.
Early on, Gosling’s performance hints at his Oscar-nominated turn as Ken in last summer’s megahit Barbie. Quite honestly, I think anytime Gosling plays an egocentric male comedic character from here on out, those comparisons to Ken will be impossible to avoid. Gosling however is so effortlessly charming in this mode, with razor sharp timing and endless “rizz” (as the kids say nowadays), we cannot help but appreciate Colt’s boyish demeanor and ego-driven buffoonery.
18 months removed from the accident, Jody is getting her shot - directing a major science-fiction blockbuster, Metalstorm, with Ryder as the lead. When Ryder goes missing, super producer Gail Meyer (an over-the-top Hannah Waddingham) arranges for Colt to return to the set for some pick-up shots and stunts unbeknownst to Jody. From there, as tensions surface between Colt and Jody, we unlock a storyline that only exists in Hollywood movies: illicit drugs, mistaken identity, a murder mystery, gun-toting bad guys, a compromised cell phone, suspense, plenty of action, a splash of romance, and a fantastic dog named Jean-Claude who steals one whole action sequence with a few perfectly timed chomps.
Leitch (Bullet Train), himself a former stunt performer, likes to have his movies rolling at a pretty steady boil. The Fall Guy never lies stagnant. Something is always happening. As Colt adjusts to Jody being his new boss on set, the screenplay by Drew Pearce, very loosely based on the Lee Majors-led 1980s television series of the same name, stumbles around a bit trying to incorporate a number of subplots and tropes common in the action movies The Fall Guy is both attempting to honor and satirize.
That throwback nostalgia vibe is notable though as The Fall Guy does tend to feel like one of those popcorn flicks we don’t really get anymore. The film carries itself loose and carefree, with everyone looking like they are having a great time. There are indeed plenty of stunts to be found here, as precise editing by Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir heightens the action and Jonathan Sela’s lensing makes the film pop with crisp color and vibrancy.
Now, as a tribute to the trade, I am not sure how much the film actually honors the stunt performer community. By isolating Colt as the stand-in for all the men and women who risk their lives performing thousands of stunts on movie sets each and every year, we make our focus a bit too narrow. We never have a sense of camaraderie among a coalition of performers who, to be fair, deserve to be celebrated. Each year, stunt performers ask and are denied a request for the creation of an Academy Award for Stunt Performance. And while recognized by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the Stunt Ensemble Award is the only SAG award not shown during the annual awards telecast.
Leitch and Pearce get so drawn into the action-movie scaffolding they have constructed, they seem to forget that we need to see more than one stunt character to honor an entire industry. By showing us a little peek behind the curtain of Colt’s preparations and the “do it again,” thumbs-up mentality he possesses, we come to appreciate the commitment these actors make with little to no public recognition. Yet that’s not really indicative of paying tribute to the stunt community as much as it is paying tribute to a fictionalized character named Colt Seavers.
With that said, other moments are hit and miss. Music cues elevate the material. Taylor-Johnson is wacky and all over the map, looking appropriately ridiculous as an entitled superstar actor with frosted hair and a wandering accent reminiscent of Matthew McConaughey’s sauciest Texas drawl. Waddingham, a talented Emmy Award winner for her wonderful turn on the series “Ted Lasso,” is manic and anxious and feels somewhat out of place in the greater context of everything. As a fan of her work, her performance never quite clicking here is something of a disappointment.
Blunt shines bright though, eventually stepping out from under Gosling’s shadow as her character takes a more prominent role, matching every beat he throws down. The duo make for a wonderful team; actors I could probably watch riff with each other in pretty much any setting and remain completely entertained.
While it may not fully come together narratively, The Fall Guy is still a great deal of fun, hearkening back to those pre-superhero summer blockbusters that wanted to simply entertain as wide an audience as possible.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Winston Duke, Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, Ben Knight, Adam Dunn, Matuse
Director: David Leitch
Written by: Drew Pearce
Based on the televison series “The Fall Guy” created by Glen A. Larson
Release Date: May 3, 2024
Universal Pictures