The Fall Guy puts stunts front and center
Theatrical Movie Review - Action/Romance
If you’re a fan of action movies, you’re a fan of stunt performers, whether you know it or not. Stunt actors help create experiences that bring excitement and drama to films we love with their work, usually without much credit or notice. Despite numerous Academy Award winning films relying on stunt work to tell the story, there is still no Oscar given in that category. Director David Leitch can’t change that, but his new film The Fall Guy at least gives these performers a moment to shine.
Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) has everything going his way. He is one of the top stunt performers in the business, and he has a budding relationship with rising director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). When an accident sidelines his work, Colt shuts himself away from everyone, including Jody, until producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) tells him that he needs to be on set for Jody’s new film, Metalstorm. Unfortunately, when he gets to the shoot, he discovers that star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is missing, and Colt is the only person who is able to find him.
I was fully enchanted by this movie. The romance is sweet, the action is interesting, and the mystery is compelling. It doesn’t necessarily rise above any of the traditional adventure rom-com tropes, but there are a few unique choices and it works within those well.
The greatest strength of this movie is no doubt its leads. Blunt and Gosling have an easy chemistry that works both when they are a couple and when they are not. Their interactions are natural and authentic and create an atmosphere that holds the rest of the movie together in a manner that is better than you might expect.
The action in this movie is interesting not because it is particularly excellent, but because it calls attention to the stunts themselves. We see every style of stunt performed in this movie: Car chases. Boat chases. Fight sequences with guns. Fight sequences with fists. People jumping through windows. People falling from heights. People set on fire. It is an absolute smorgasbord of stunt techniques and each one is executed deliberately to call attention to the technique.
What really made this movie work is the way that Gosling once again gives us a traditionally masculine character while allowing him to express true emotions. It is powerful to see positive examples of masculinity on screen while also allowing them to exist as more complex characters.
When Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt stepped on stage together at the 2023 Academy Awards, lots of people thought that they were there to announce a new category for a Stunts Oscar. The call for higher visibility for stunt performers and more recognition for their work continues to grow louder. The Fall Guy certainly is a love letter to the craft and those who perform it. Now, let’s see if someone picks up this sexy bacon and digests the real message inside.
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on May 6, 2024.