THE FALL GUY – Review

A love letter to Hollywood and stunt men, THE FALL GUY is an entertaining, stunt-packed action/comedy film wrapped around a rom-com center, starring Ryan Gosling as a stuntman and Emily Blunt as the director on a big-budget action film. The two have a romantic history, and Gosling’s stuntman is longing to get her back, but there are plenty of complications, thanks mostly to the big-ego action star he is doubling and a manipulative high-powered producer, even before all those risky stunts.

Ryan Gosling follows up his Ken role in BARBIE with action-filled part as a hardworking stunt man, in director David Leitch’s THE FALL GUY. Leitch is a former stuntman, so he knows what he is doing here with this action-comedy. Leith goes with practical effects rather than green screen giving this entertaining, escapist delight an extra layer of enjoyment. The film was inspired by “The Fall Guy” TV show but draws on a host of movies about stunt work and movie-making like THE STUNT MAN and the Burt Reynolds’s vehicle HOOPER.

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the long-time stunt double for action-movie superstar Tom Ryan (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). While working on Tom’s latest thriller, Colt has fallen for assistant director Jody (Emily Blunt). Just as their romance is getting started, Colt suffers a serious injury when a stunt goes wrong. His confidence shaken, Colt retreats into isolation, quits stunt work and ghosts Jody. But when the high-powered producer (Hannah Waddingham) tracks Colt down and tells him that Jody, now the director on her first big-budget film, a sci-fi action epic called METALSTORM, wants him to once again stunt double her film’s star Tom Ryan, Colt eventually agrees. Filled with regret about Jody, Colt hopes to rekindle their love affair but when he shows up on location in Sydney, Australia, he discovers Jody didn’t ask for him and doesn’t know why he’s there. Still hurt, Jody does decide to let Colt stay on but she is constantly testing him, making him do stunts over and over, and over. Meanwhile, Colt’s friend, stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke), does what he can to help out the pining Colt.

But then writer Drew Pearce piles on another layer, the real reason the producer wanted Colt there: star Tom Ryan has gone missing. If Colt can’t find him, the studio will pull the plug on Jody’s big-break movie. No one else knows Tom actually has disappeared – they think it is just not showing up, as he sometimes does – and Colt has to get him back before anyone finds out. The stuntman sets out to find Tom, with a little help from the star’s assistant (Stephanie Hsu), but Colt quickly finds himself embroiled in something more complicated, a mystery with underworld types and more questions than answers.

THE FALL GUY has plenty of humor, sly Hollywood jokes and movie references. The practical-effects stunts are outstanding and nearly non-stop. THE FALL GUY features an action/thriller plot wrapped around a rom-com story (a genre that could use a reboot), with Gosling and Blunt delightful as the couple, going back-and forth about restarting their romance. The humor leans into move insider jokes and poking at Hollywood tropes and more, including some ribbing of Tom Cruise, but this is not primarily a satire but a celebration of the art and craft of movie stunts and the people who do them.

While THE FALL GUY is fun, it is not flaw-free. It gets off to a precarious start by not allowing enough time at the beginning for the audience to get really get to know the two lead characters enough to want to really cheer for their love story. Once on track with the hunt for the missing star, the plot gets overly far-fetched and then also gets bogged down in a series of fights and chases with the stuntman fighting real baddies on the streets of Sydney. But eventually THE FALL GUY gets back on track, recovers from those stumbles in time, with the help of appealing performances by Blunt and Gosling, and refocuses in time to deliver a bang-up stunt–filled finale and a crowd-pleasing Hollywood ending.

Whether or not you enjoy THE FALL GUY depends on how much you appreciate real stunt work over CGI, and also how much you like Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. For the right audience, it is one fun ride.

THE FALL GUY opens Friday, May 3, in theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars