The Fall Guy

Colt Seavers sure can take a fall.  But he’s really good at doing it.  After all, he is a professional stuntman working on the set of a new movie.  Colt (Ryan Gosling) and the director, Jody (Emily Blunt), are romantically involved.  As long as he can get back up after falling, he emerges from the stunt giving a thumbs-up.  One day, however, he falls and breaks his back while the crew prepare him for his next stunt.  Eighteen months later, we find that he is depressed and watches as Tom, the narcissistic star of Jody’s sci-fi epic (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) soaks in the glory. 

Eventually, Colt is summoned back to the set unexpectedly when the man goes missing.  His relationship with Jody has been seriously fractured in their time apart, and the hurt feelings are mutual.  However, without Tom, her movie is in serious jeopardy.  But he quickly finds himself in over his head when he searches the seedy criminal underworld and finds a dead body in a bathtub.  Unprepared for real-life danger, Colt finds himself improvising and using his stunt training to keep himself alive so that he can help save his ex’s production.    

Director David Leitch is best known for his work on John Wick (which he co-directed), Deadpool 2, Bullet Train, and Atomic Blonde.  He is also a stuntman himself, having worked with prominent Hollywood stars including Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.  You might say that this action-comedy is also an ode to filmmaking and these oft-overlooked people who help make it all possible.  The Fall Guy also boasts great star power from its two leads.  While Gosling and Blunt are terrific individually here, they have wonderful chemistry together.  Taylor-Johnson plays the egomaniac quite well, and is entertaining to watch, and Winston Duke is also fun in a supporting role as Colt’s friend. There is a lot of well-staged action, both on and off Jody’s movie set. 

The script from Drew Pearce, who also penned Leitch’s Fast and Furious spinoff Hobbs and Shaw, is quite clever.  For instance, one scene finds Blunt and Gosling working on a shoot, with both using megaphones to discuss their fractured relationship using a thinly-veiled metaphor…while she calls for him to repeatedly be set on fire to channel her anger towards him.  Another standout cuts between Colt in a chase scene and Jody singing Phil Collins’ cover of “Against All Odds” during karaoke.  The film also has fun using techniques that the characters refer to as “gimmicky”, such as split screen during a conversation.

Where this Fall Guy falls flat is in its pacing.  Multiple sequences, while entertaining enough in isolation, definitely could have been trimmed down.  Unfortunately, this makes the two-hour runtime—a reasonable length for movies—feel longer than it really is.  Cutting about a half-hour would actually tighten it up considerably.  As a result, some running gags that are amusing at first stagnate quickly.

Still, Leitch’s new film-about-a-film is not only a great time but makes for a nice date night.  It has all the right ingredients for a fun time at the cinema with surprising heart.  Not only that, but The Fall Guy is a great way to kickstart the summer movie season. It deserves that thumbs-up that the titular character often gives after a successful stunt.

Rated PG-13 for action and violence, drug content and some strong language.

2 hours, 7 minutes