Universal. 2024. Action Comedy. 126min.
Grade: 3.5 out of 4
Whoever wins the very first Academy Award for Best Stunt (come on already, make it happen, Motion Picture Academy!) had better thank The Fall Guy director David Leitch. In Leitch’s follow-up to the lamentable Bullet Train, the former Brad Pitt stunt double turned director has delivered a delightful, stuff to the gills pitch for the on-screen daredevils who fall from the sky, drive off cliffs, and trade fisticuffs to finally earn their own Oscar category. Leitch’s film, written—if sometimes over-written—by Drew Pearce (Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation), has been constructed to ensure that nearly every beat contains an opening for something or someone to explode, crash, or burst into flames. It’s a combination action adventure, mystery, love story, and affectionate Hollywood send-up whose biggest stunt is balancing all these elements while also telling a credible-enough love story between a stuntman (Ryan Gosling) and a movie director (Emily Blunt). And even if the story’s every nut and bolt doesn’t fit perfectly and the plot is all heavy machinery, its two stars are light on their feet in a way that makes the entire enterprise a delightful crowdpleaser that harkens back to the glory days of Hollywood when all you needed to be swept away by a movie was Gable and Lombard trading the wisecracks and come hither glances of two people reluctantly, inevitably falling in love.
As if his Kenergetic, Oscar nominated turn in Barbie wasn’t enough, Gosling’s work in The Fall Guy is more proof that he’s managed to become an old-fashioned name brand movie star at a time that has devalued traditional movie star fame. As Colt Seavers, Gosling oozes laconic charm while his cheesy Miami Vice leather jacket, willingness to cry at Taylor Swift songs, and general air of dorkiness show he’s more than game to lean into his silly and self-effacing sides. If at times it looks like Gosling is trying hard not to wink at the camera, it matters not a whit. Gosling knows that The Fall Guy is an infectious, high-octane in-joke. It’s an action comedy whose love for movies and those who toil unrecognized are its primary driving forces. Toiling unrecognized, of course, is an unavoidable part of the gig for Colt, who’s been stunt double for ego-drenched, big screen superstar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) for years until an on-set mishap—staged by Leitch and DP Jonathan Sela as an impressive curtain opening oner—breaks his back, destroys his career, and ruins his budding romance with the film’s camera operator, Jody (Blunt).
Eighteen months later, Colt is living low and working as a parking attendant at a Mexican restaurant. None of that is remotely believable. In fact, little of the film is particularly believable but one of the joys of The Fall Guy is how it seduces us into accepting whatever minor implausibility, slathered-on plot complication, or character inconsistency Leitch throws at us. It’s a price we gladly pay for a series of increasingly wild stunts and the genuine A-list chemistry between Gosling and Blunt. While the dreamy Gosling could make us believe he’s fallen in love with a cactus, the versatile and charming Blunt maintains enough English reserve that sometimes her effectiveness in romantic parts is a bit undercut. But here, she and Gosling have terrific chemistry and sell their smaller emotional beats with no fear they’ll get buried in the mayhem. Blunt especially gives off a radiant shine, playing a role that would have been considered (insultingly) implausible 20 years ago: a female, big budget studio director. Post Colt’s accident, Jody has graduated from camera operator to director and is presently in Sydney, Australia with Tom Ryder helming a blockbuster titled Metalstorm. When producer Gail (Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham, sometimes pushing her character’s shrillness a bit too far) begs Colt to come out of retirement and double for Ryder he agrees in hopes of reconnecting with his old flame. Jody, however, is still sore over being ghosted 18 months earlier and their clever on-set reunion sees Jody picking up a bullhorn and explaining Metalstorm’s tragic love story to Colt (which doubles as a description of their failed fling) and then making him repeatedly perform a stunt where he’s set on fire and flung into a boulder.
The Fall Guy feels so fresh and fun that you forget it’s yet another big budget behemoth based on IP, the far from classic ABC action-adventure series of the same name that ran from 1981-1986. Lee Majors played Colt, a stuntman who doubles as a bounty hunter in his off-hours. The nouveau Colt is also chasing criminals except here the plot revolves around Colt being enlisted to find Ryder who has disappeared. To find his star, Colt enlists stunt coordinator Dan (Winston Duke, could have used more of him) and Ryder’s assistant Alma (Stephanie Hsu). The ultimate explanation for Ryder’s disappearance is ridiculous but Leitch labors mightily to get us there with a smorgasbord of sensational stunts. He also doesn’t skimp on quick cut shots of stunt coordinators preparing a stunt which suggests that the not-very subtextual purpose of Leitch’s film is to remind the world (and the Academy) that stunt performers exist, work hard, are important, and (did we mention) deserve that Oscar category.
If that’s the case, all those missions are accomplished. Despite the occasional lumbering stretch, Leitch (who also helmed the first John Wick) directs the hell out of the film even in non-stunt scenes like the extended and clever split-screen exchange between Colt and Jodie. The Fall Guy is loud, fun and state of the art but still manages to feel deeply personal to a stunt performer turned director who clearly loves his former profession and those who continue to risk life and limb for our delectation. The movie’s heart is in two places simultaneously: the stunt performers he celebrates and the old school A-list stars who are the movie’s best special effect.