The Fall Guy
For the majority of his career David Leitch was neither seen nor heard. Doubling for Brad Pitt and Jean-Claude Van Damme, his early paychecks came from driving cars dangerously, throwing himself in front of them, fighting other stunt doubles and falling from heights, all without his face making it onto camera. His anonymity continued with his uncredited co-direction of John Wick and the fact that I didn’t see Bullet Train or Atomic Blonde and repressed any memories of that Fast & Furious spin-off. When I saw the trailer for his new film The Fall Guy, excitement is not one of the feelings I experienced. So you can imagine my sheepish surprise when the film turned out to be overwhelmingly enjoyable. With The Fall Guy, David Leitch pens an open love letter to stunts and the ones who perform them, reigniting audience belief in the value of fun popcorn movies made properly.
The ‘guy’ in the title is Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), a stuntman who is less Cliff Booth and more Ken by way of Action Man. He is the stunt double for Matthew McConaughey-coded Tom Ryder (Aaron-Taylor Johnson), the lead in a big movie that also employs Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), a camera assistant on her way up in the film industry. Jody and Colt engage in a promising fling but when a stunt gone wrong gives Colt a broken back, he retreats from the relationship and the industry, choosing instead to put his stunt experience to work in the vocation of valet parking. One day, he receives a call from Gail (Hannah Waddingham), the Diet Coke-sipping producer of Metalstorm, Tom’s new film. Tom’s gone missing, you see, and they need his old stunt double to go find him and to stand in for him once more. The only problem is, the film is helmed by Jody in her first director credit, and she’s not thrilled with this blast from the recent past. Hijinks ensue, Phil Collins plays and for just over two hours, the audience is treated to a genuinely good time.
The Fall Guy is based on a Lee Majors-led 80s television series of the same name and was reportedly in talks for an adaptation some ten years ago, with McG slated to direct and Dwayne Johnson lined up for the lead role. I cannot express how thankful I am that this did not eventuate. With Leitch behind the wheel, bolstered by his years of first hand experience as a stunt performer and coordinator, we instead get a film that knows its strengths and its limits, and plays to them accordingly.
There’s an effortlessness to The Fall Guy’s balance of comedy and action (reminiscent of Spy, another complete surprise of a film) and a sincerity in its reverence for stunt people and stunt coordinators without whom some of the greatest films of all time would not exist. It makes the obligatory call-outs to those in the industry who’ve already put stunt work under the belated spotlight (see Tom Cruise) and it even manages to touch on the integration of AI in filmmaking in a way that doesn’t feel sensationalist or tacked on, but is actually relevant to its narrative.
From the opening credits that draw from the actual script to the end credits reel of its actual stunts, The Fall Guy shows us that there’s a whole heap of unseen work that goes into a finished product. Movie making is the epitome of a collaborative effort and you really get a sense while watching the film that everyone was given the time and space to do their job to the best of their ability. Drew Pearce’s previous credits as a screenwriter may not have wowed (apart from a story credit on Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation) but his script here is as tight as a stuntman’s rear, never getting bogged down in exposition and never letting jokes run longer than they should. The music works perfectly alongside the writing, particularly in intercut between Emily Blunt’s karaoke cover of ‘Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)’ with a car chase through the streets of Sydney. Where Kiss’ ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ was overplayed and relied upon to inject comedy where there was none in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, its presence here is far more thematically and tonally appropriate.
Filmed at Disney Studios in Sydney, Leitch makes excellent use of his location not just in the obligatory Opera House and Harbour Bridge backdrops but in his supporting cast of local talent. Special credit should go to Adam Dunn as Nigel, Jody’s hilariously fastidious assistant, Ben Knight as the film’s brawny villain Dressler (more representation for evil gingers, please), and Teresa Palmer as Tom Ryder’s chaotic girlfriend Iggy Starr. Its American supporting cast is strong too, particularly Winston Duke as a stunt coordinator with a Daniel Day-Lewis obsession in a nice nod to his closeted thespian character in Nine Days. But ultimately, this is a studio movie with two big names on the poster, and a large part of its success was always going to hinge on the dynamic between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Thankfully, and perhaps unsurprisingly, they are sublime.
Ryan Gosling continues carrying the torch for wholesome masculinity, this time as a man in a high testosterone industry who is refreshingly able to communicate his insecurities to the object of his affection. Emily Blunt earned her action stripes in the underrated gem Edge of Tomorrow alongside Cruise but here she is softened, her proximity to the action reflected in her proclivity for jumpsuits and yelling into megaphones. It suits her incredibly well. Together, Gosling and Blunt have a chemistry that is entirely believable and realistic, especially for a film where they are surrounded by people in alien suits and barreling cars (side note: the film won the Guinness World Record for most cannon rolls performed thanks to driver Logan Holladay). It’s a modern relationship plagued by modern problems, like the woman feeling punished by her success and the man having to come to terms with not being in a position of power. Lovely stuff.
The Fall Guy won’t quite stand alongside modern action classics like Mad Max: Fury Road or the new Mission Impossibles, nor will its fight choreography hold a candle to John Wick: Chapter Four. But it’s got charm in spades and wears its heart on its sleeve with a fearlessness befitting its subject matter. I had a jolly good time throughout, and I suspect most audiences will, too.
Verdict
☆☆☆☆
The Fall Guy is in cinemas now.
