The Fall Guy – a review

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, great to look at, but no star-crossed lovers

This film is conceived as vanilla entertainment, the kind of film that hasn’t enough meat on the bone to give a critic more than half-a-dozen paragraphs of a review. The plot is so shallow that finding gravitas and meaning is like trying to hold water in your hand.

I thought it would be an homage to stuntmen, a respectful look at all the hard, dangerous work they do for next to no indentification outside the industry they work in. You get to see how some stunts are created, the measuring tape planning and science that goes into a single stunt shot on multi-cameras. But the film turns out to be a simple love story, just as it’s advertised. The disappointing aspect is the two chief characters never ignite the screen with any shared passion or chemistry, and yet they are Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, two fine actors whom you would think sizzle soon as they touch hands. There is the pantomime moment when their gaze meet and the world around freezes as they stare at each other’s souls. Beyond that there’s a kiss, and a few hugs, and that’s it.

Stunt work is supposed to be invisible. The Fall Guy turns that process inside out. The whole film is based on seeing how stunts are put together, long action sequences where we see the camera crew do their stuff following the stunt driver in the stunt car about to take a few roll-overs tumbles in the beach sand, the entire affair followed by the actual Fall Guy production crew filming them doing all that stuff on the move. In between are the quiet talkative moments. This is where the comedy lies, and in some cases it works. I laughed out loud. Oh, there is a rather unnecessary and clunky murder plot woven through the off-on love story. I won’t spoil it for the reader. It is probably that which makes the film twenty minutes too long. It has two endings, both action sequences.

The stuntman gets to be the hero, (of an madly complicated story) but the star actor he doubles for is a pain in the ass prima donna who claims to do all his own stunts – a reference to Tom Cruise, in fact there are a few tongue-in-cheek references to Cruise, including his wonky running style.

Gosling plays stunt specialist Colt Seavers. We know Gosling just stepped in to give the thumbs-up when each stunt is done, in a classy way. Gosling comes off looking gracious, and at the end of the day, he’s still the one who gets the girl. The girl, in this case, is Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), the director of a multimillion-dollar sci-fi blockbuster called “Metalstorm” — a camerawoman getting to call the shots for the first time.

Worth noting: Back in 1981, Hollywood stunt legend Hal Needham directed The Cannonball Run, which means the transition from stunt double to director is nothing new. Former stunt David Leitch has been directing features for a decade, starting with John Wick. With this project, the helmer has an unparalleled opportunity to honor his original profession. In recent years, bluescreens, digital effects and the fast-evolving field of AI have made the stuntman’s profession almost redundant. A few push their work to the fartherest point to impress, with wirework, “oners” and techniques showcased in the film.

The A-list attention hog is a fictional movie actor named Tom Ryder, (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who looks and sounds like Matthew McConaughey with his cowboy drawl, and acts like an egotistical jerk, like Matthew McConaughey. Colt’s been doubling for Ryder for years, until take two of an ultra-dangerous stunt — a plunge of more than 100 feet — leaves Colt with a broken back. His career appears to be at an end, but this is where the story begins. From the tragedy we cut ahead to a film being shot in Australia’s Bondi Beach close to the Opera House. Director David Leitch knows how to film action scenes which he does supremely well, but dialogue scenes he flunks time after time.

Ryan Gosling leaps from truck to car… well, his stuntman double does

The movie never really explores what makes Colt tick: healed broken back or not, he keeps doing the dangerous stuff. Does he have a death wish? An unusually high pain tolerance? And then comes the plot twist. Tom the star actor disappears before the final stunt is in the editing room. Chaos ensues, leaving a madly overacting female producer to go screaming off her head. The explanation for Tom’s disappearance is preposterous, but we go along with it. It makes a change from the stunt-chat-stunt-chat screaming jet-limp-along pace of the story. As I said at the start, this is pure entertainment, candy floss, a chocolate ice lolly, so don’t expect a cerebal study of lives flung together. The Fall Guy is funny, kinda sexy, and it features Gosling playing another action man just like Ken in Barbie. His character doesn’t have much depth and can hardly string a sentence together, but some women like silent guys.

I’ve only shot one film that needed a stuntman, but the budget could not afford it. So we shot the character falling backwards out a window, (onto the studio floor three feet below and a mattress) and then cut to his bloddied, mashed up body lying on the pavement supposedly fifty feet below. The scene in my political thriller Brond used a similar technique when a child is pushed over a bridge. Sometimes what’s left to the imagination is better than seeing it all happen.

Ah, I see I shall have to eat my words. I managed ten paragraphs out of reviewing the film. Okay, how many stars? Three. The film is pure American propaganda culture.

• Star rating: Three stars
• Director: David Leitch
• Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Winston Duke Duke, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham
• Writer: Drew Pearce, based on the TV series created by Glen A. Larson.
• Cinematographer: Johnathan Sela
• Composer: Dominic Lewis
• Adult Rating: 12A
• Duration: 2 hours 6 minutes.
• RATING CRITERIA
• 5 plus: potential classic, innovative. 5: outstanding. 4: excellent. 3.5: excellent but flawed. 3: good if formulaic. 2: straight to DVD. 1: crap; why did they bother?