Movie Review: ‘The Fall Guy’
Director: David Leitch
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, Hannah Waddingham, Stephanie Hsu, Teresa Palmer
Plot: Retired movie stuntman Colt is brought back into the industry for the opportunity to reunite with the director, a lost love. Things are complicated when Colt is drawn into a missing persons case that has more intrigue than expected.
Review: This is going to sound really mean, but we’ve always felt as though director Leitch’s films have come up short. He’s got a fantastic resume as a stunt man for names as big as Brad Pitt, and achieved massive acclaim for his work on the Bourne series, and brought the John Wick franchise to the table. Since then he’s shifted into director with bombastic adventures like Atomic Blonde and Bullet Train, but they’ve never landed especially well for us. They’re stylish, exciting and colourful, but never keep us engaged through to the end.
Perhaps it’s his history and passion for stunt work that has made this such a passion project, but whatever the reason The Fall Guy absolutely lands and is a banging good time from beginning to end.
Colt (Gosling) is a stuntman and Jody (Blunt) is a camera operator, and they’re very much in love. Colt’s happy life is derailed when an on-set accident leaves him with a broken back and a broken heart. Now making a meagre living as a valet, Colt is enticed back into stunt work when he learns that Jody has asked for him to join a production she is helming in Sydney, Australia. Arriving on set, Colt quickly learns that Jody was not expecting to see him, rather the producer Gail (Waddingham) needs to him to seek out their missing star, Tom Ryder (Taylor-Johnson) before his absence kills the production.
This is an immensely fun romp, and not just because we’re tickled by the Australian setting (although we have out steering wheels on the right side of the car, that was distracting). Leitch has built the film as a showcase of stunt work with skip-bin car chases, fire stunts, fight scenes that smash through walls, windows and furniture, boat jumps and plenty of explosions. This wouldn’t be enough to make a film out of, so it’s fortunate that Gosling and Blunt have delightful chemistry and seem to be having a really good time.
The missing actor aspect of the plot and associated twists keep things ticking along, but this is really the story of two people who’s time together was cut short and they need to find their way back to each other. There’s a really nice balance of scenes exploring their past and what they still mean to each other interspersed between the jumps and kicks. It never feels like the relationship was crowbarred into an action film. It’s much more fun spending time with these characters when they’re wearing their hearts on the sleeves like this. It’s the same arc we saw with the characters of Jurassic World…but likeable.
Where the movie gets a bit rocky is in the third act, which loses the tight pacing that we’d been enjoying up until this. It’s still plenty of fun, but the final action sequence could have benefitted from a bit more brutality in the editing suite.
Ultimately this is an ode to the stunt performer, a greatly under-appreciated profession that do a massive amount of heavy lifting for movie stars. It’s also a crowd pleasing blockbuster with A-List actors, spectacular set-pieces and laugh-out-loud comedy beats. It’s not deep, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better popcorn flick this year.
Rating: EIGHT out of TEN
