The Fall Guy Review: Ryan Gosling (And His Stunt Team) Lead A Spectacular Time At The Movies [SXSW 2024]
There's something so carefully and deliberately old school about "The Fall Guy," director David Leitch's blockbuster take on the television show of the same name, that allows it to feel revolutionary. Like a cry from another era, this is a major motion picture built on the hope that audiences will want to see a cast of attractive, charming, interesting actors bounce off each other on screen, trading barbs and dashing looks. There's no franchise-building here, and no ambitions beyond offering the audience primal, pure pleasures.
Do you want to watch Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt be funny and badass? Do you want to watch them fall in love and save the day? Do you want an entire movie to be constructed around the mere fact that these beautiful, massively talented people ignite the screen whenever they're sharing the frame? The movie hopes the answer is yes, and their sparkling chemistry is the explosive fuel that powers one of the best studio blockbusters in recent years, an engine carefully constructed to please the audience at each and every turn.
It would feel cynical if it didn't work, if it wasn't assembled with such care and attention to detail. But because Leitch's direction is so sharp, his actors so appealing, and the script by Drew Pearce so fundamentally satisfying, "The Fall Guy" is a movie that exists to make you happy. Yes, you. Every single one of you. People who like movies.
Two movies in one
The premise reveals the magic trick. Gosling is Colt Seavers, a dashing Hollywood stunt performer with a heart of gold. Blunt is Jody Moreno, Colt's ex and a first-time director at the helm of a difficult sci-fi project. Her leading man is missing. Colt is tasked by the film's super-producer (Hannah Waddingham, another point in the "endlessly appealing" column) to join the movie's crew and track the MIA movie star down. Naturally, Colt finds himself balancing his tenuous, reignited relationship with Jody while we discover a conspiracy that threatens more than a few careers, not to mention the entire production.
If this sounds like an adorable romantic comedy got shoved into the Cronenberg pod with a bombastic action movie, that's because "The Fall Guy" is exactly that. But it's a lovely mutation — Colt wanders from one genre to the other, doing his part as the rom-com boyfriend before walking a corner and kicking butts as the action hero. Gosling navigates two films in one, proving himself for the nth time to be one of the most gifted and versatile leading men of his generation. We don't even notice as the two storylines slowly intertwine and become one by the home stretch, because both are so capably told. Those who are there for the action find themselves enjoying a stellar rom-com; folks present for the flirting and the longing get to invest themselves in car chases, shootouts, and explosions.
Both storylines feed into each other. Both feel necessary. Both feel as if they're being given the same attention and care as the other. In one especially delightful scene, Colt and Jody speak over the phone and we're treated to their conversation in split screen. He's investigating a dark apartment. She's trying to fix her script's busted third act. Their conversation furthers both storylines, deepens their connection, and serves every angle of the movie at once. The rom-com and the action film coexist as one. Leitch, that script, and those actors spin it all into blissful entertainment. Great banter is already rare enough, but great banter ensconced in such sly, playful physical filmmaking is a unicorn.
A tribute to the margins
Leitch has made solid films before ("Atomic Blonde" is an underrated minor gem), but he's also been behind projects that feel weirdly inert, like something in the process just didn't click ("Hobbs and Shaw," anyone?). But "The Fall Guy" is a project from a filmmaker who is clearly passionate about the material, and determined to make you passionate about it, too. Leitch was a stunt performer and coordinator for years before he stepped into the director's seat, and his love for the folks who actually get movies like this made is clear and unmistakable. Members of the fictional film crew are given as much room to steal the show as the leads (Winston Duke, as a movie-quoting stunt coordinator, is a blast), and the filmmaking sequences themselves marvel at folks in the margins. Through Leitch's lens, the small army that makes a movie is nothing short of heroic (eventually, literally), and he films them accordingly.
It's no accident that Gosling spends one of the film's biggest action sequences proudly wearing an IATSE sweatshirt. And it's certainly no accident that the criminally overlooked and under-sung work from Hollywood stunt performers is not just color, but a full-on proper plot point. Gosling offers the perfect little wince when his character confirms to another that no, folks in his field don't get Oscars.
"The Fall Guy" puts its money where its mouth is. The action is big and largely practical (as evidenced by a closing credits reel that shows off the making of the biggest key moments). People who aren't Ryan Gosling take giant tumbles, leap off cars, fly helicopters, ramp boats, get set on fire, and generally do things that would leave you and me in the hospital for weeks. That Gosling's character does all of this with a resolute smile showcases Leitch's absolute affection for this craft. Gosling isn't a superhero here, but he is superheroic. Just like the people taking the falls for him.
An infinite well of pleasures
None of this would work if we didn't care about Colt and Jody. But if Leitch is old school enough to care about actually throwing his stunt performers from high places, he's certainly old school enough to understand the value of letting these two gorgeous people tear up the screen. From moment one, Gosling and Blunt radiate movie star charm, the kind of chemistry that cannot be faked. We don't sit impatiently for the love story to resolve so we can get back to plot or action, because the moments where these two flirt up a storm feel like set pieces in their own right. Fireworks. If we're lucky, Hollywood will Hepburn/Tracy these two and keep them paired up for future movies.
Because of the nature of my job, I'm sometimes cynical about movies, especially mainstream studio releases. I approach the latest blockbuster with a sense of wariness. I'm tired of getting burned. "The Fall Guy" is a salve for those burns. This is pure entertainment, expertly crafted and presented by artists who care about their work and want the viewer to be happy. Frankly, watching this movie made me happy, and that's not something I can always say about movies of this size and scope.
Just when you think the infinite well of pleasures has dried up, the incredible dog character shows up. Yes, really. They thought of everything.
/Film Rating: 9 out of 10