A Charismatic Cast Nearly Saves 'The Fall Guy'

Nearly.

There are two reasons, and only two reasons, to see The Fall Guy: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. You don’t need me to tell you that these two are both incredibly charismatic, funny, and easy on the eyes, and if you saw them present together at the Oscars earlier this year, you can already guess that they have great chemistry. Aided by a supporting cast worthy of their gifts - including Hannah Waddingham, Winston Duke, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson - these two are so good they almost save this otherwise pretty meh movie.

Almost.

Based on the early ‘80s television series created by Glen A. Larson and starring Lee Majors, The Fall Guy is about a Hollywood stuntman, Colt Seavers (Gosling), who falls for a camera operator, Jody Moreno (Blunt). Their romance is disrupted when Colt suffers a serious on-set injury from a stunt gone awry; Jody tries to be supportive, but Colt pushes her away, allegedly because of fear or embarrassment or intimacy issues or whatever (narrative details are not this film’s strong suit), but really so that the movie can happen.

Cut ahead 18 months after Colt’s injury, and despite making a full physical recovery, he’s now working as a valet. Then an obnoxious producer, Gail Meyer (Waddingham), enlists him to perform in Jody’s mega-budget directorial debut, allegedly because Jody asked for him (she didn’t), but really because the movie’s star, Tom Ryder (Taylor-Johnson), has gone missing, and she believes Colt can find him. Colt agrees because if they don’t find him, the studio will pull the plug on the whole movie, and he believes, understandably, that saving Jody’s film is a good way to win her back. Ryder’s disappearance, however, turns out to be linked to a larger crime scheme in which Colt becomes enmeshed.

The Fall Guy, like last month’s Road House remake, was written by a one-time Shane Black collaborator - in this case, Iron Man 3 co-scribe Drew Pearce - and badly wants to be a Shane Black picture. Black was, is, and shall likely forever be the king of post-modern action movies, and that’s the vibe for which The Fall Guy aims: as in Black’s masterpiece, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Colt narrates the film in a lackadaisical, self-aware manner that suggests he may know he’s in a movie. And Colt is basically a variation of Holland March, the P.I. Gosling played in Black’s The Nice Guys. But Holland had pathos, humanity, vulnerability, fallibility, and, of course, tons of funny dialogue; Colt kind of has some of these things, but in much, much smaller quantities.

Still, he’s downright three-dimensional compared to Jody, who is just “the girl.” The role is entirely dependent on Blunt to make it even remotely workable, and good on her for pulling it off. I can’t tell you anything about Jody as a person other than that she’s British and she’s the luckiest camera operator in the history of the movie business (no one has ever gone directly from being a camera op to helming their own huge spectacle film). I can’t even imagine why Blunt would agree to take this role; they must have backed the money truck right up to her front lawn.

The barely-sketched characters and hit-or-miss humor are The Fall Guy’s biggest problems, but not its only problems. The plot makes no goddamn sense on any level whatsoever right from the start; it’s so stupid I absolutely refuse to believe the filmmakers didn’t know how stupid it is, which means they either think their audience is stupid or that their movie is so funny the plot doesn’t really matter. Alas, neither of these things are true. There is a not a scene in this movie that makes a lick of sense, which doesn’t exactly help keep the viewer engaged.

Most bafflingly of all, The Fall Guy doesn’t properly showcase the work of its stunt performers. Because the movie is about a stuntman, and because its director, David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Bullet Train), used to be a stuntman, you’d think this would be the movie’s easiest win. The problem is that every image has been digitally tweaked to such a degree that none of the stunts ever look real - in fact, I only know they’re not visual effects because of a montage, which runs during the closing credits, of all the stunt performers filming the movie you’ve just watched. This montage is more exciting than anything that’s in The Fall Guy itself, and has roughly the same quality of storytelling, too.

If you’re looking for a fun movie about a stunt performer that has more going for it than the charm of its leads, might I recommend 1980’s The Stunt Man? It was directed and co-written by Richard Rush, whose other work, frankly, ranges from forgettable (Freebie and the Bean) to memorable for the wrong reasons (Color of Night); but he nabbed an Oscar nom for The Stunt Man, and understandably so.

In The Stunt Man, Steve Railsback plays Cameron, a fugitive who hides out by passing himself off as a stunt double for a war movie. Needless to say, things don’t go as planned. The fictional film’s director is played by the great Peter O’Toole, who scored Best Actor nod for his troubles; the fictional film’s leading lady is portrayed by the always-excellent Barabra Hershey. The movie is both funnier and more exciting than The Fall Guy… even if Railsback is no Gosling.