Film Review: Gosling/Blunt's Charisma Saves “Fall Guy”

LOS ANGELES, April 30 (UPI) — The chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt drives The Fall Guy, hits theaters Friday, despite a shaky script. Whenever they're not on screen, it's clear that the film would be nothing without them, but there are enough of them in it to keep it fun.

Colt Seavers (Gosling) is Tom Ryder's (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) stuntman. When Tom insists on a second take of a stunt, Colt sustains a back injury and quits the stunt business.

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18 months later, producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) asks Colt to return for Jody Moreno's (Emily Blunt) directorial debut. Colt hasn't called Jody since the accident, so their reunion doesn't go smoothly.

The '80s TV series was about a stuntman turned bounty hunter, which makes sense for weekly adventures. The film is more aimed at highlighting the profession of stunt coordinator and performer.

Director David Leitch was a stuntman and his production company, 87 North Productions, is the elite in the industry. So it's okay if the act of The Fall Guy mOvie is a little flimsy to justify the fun of his homage, but then the fun should come quicker.

Gail actually called Colt to find Tom, who disappeared without the studio finding out. The more charming story is the story of a stuntman and director who falls in love again.

The scenes between Colt and Jody are the film's strongest, whether Jody is using the plot of a sci-fi movie to blatantly address their relationship or whether they are arguing in the event of a mix-up. The film spends too much time on the Tom plot when it should actually be about Colt and Jody.

Since The Fall Guy is a comedy, the action outside the film set has more jokes than danger. The film plays Colt as an idiot, not the cool action hero that Gosling is perfectly suited to be.

Colt uses his stunt powers while investigating Tom's disappearance. Because he knows how to get hit by a car and survive, Colt will literally stand in the way of a fleeing suspect.

Colt can use a staircase as a ramp to launch a vehicle during a chase. The highlight of the film on the film set also includes the stunt and pyrotechnics departments.

It was a mistake to interrupt a good car chase with a scene of Gail and Jody in a bar, thus ruining the energy of the action scene. But other moments, like Colt and Jody discussing the use of split screen while actually performing on split screens, are also impressive.

Colt and stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke) have almost as much chemistry as Jody. Dan helps Colt solve the Tom mystery as they quote action movies to each other.

The fake titles of Tom's films sound credible, except that they appear to be all originals and not based on any pre-existing intellectual property such as: B. based The Guy case itself. The script correctly points out that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still refuses to add a category for a stunt Oscar.

The Guy case shows audiences how productions now scan actors and their stuntmen so they can place the actors' faces on footage of their stuntmen performing dangerous stunts. So it's a little disingenuous when the film pretends to show close-ups of Gosling in action, even though it explicitly shows how modern films can fake it.

A behind-the-scenes montage during the end credits shows Gosling's double performing some of the key stunts from the film, and some that actually involve Gosling being pulled on wires.

Given that the mystery surrounding Tom's disappearance is small and, without giving it away, only complicates it, it really should have been relegated to a background subplot. But, The Guy case doesn't take itself as seriously as other films with even more involved plots, so it's more fun than without.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more about his work in entertainment.