Ivan Radford | On 09, Jun 2024

Director: David Leitch
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham
Certificate: 12

Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling. Stick either of them in front of a camera and you have a movie worth watching. What happens if you put both of them in the same movie? You get an absolute blast.

The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, a legendary stuntman who will do almost anything to make his counterpart, A-list star Tom Ryder (a hilariously petulant Aaron Taylor-Johnson), look good on screen. Colt swaggers on to set with a cool, confident bravado, sharing flirtatious quips with camera operator Jody Morena (Emily Blunt) in between throwing himself off tall buildings or jumping in front of cars. But when a stunt goes wrong, living him in hospital and unable to work, he withdraws from the world, his career and his relationship with Jody.

Fast forward 18 months and producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham, clearly having a whale of a time) coaxes Colt back to work on Ryder’s latest movie – a space Western romance that also happens to be Jody’s very first movie as a director in her own right. Told that she’s asked for him personally, he steps back into the fray – only to discover that she doesn’t want him there, Tom is missing and Gail is hoping that Colt can track him down. Real kidnappers. Real danger. No pulled punches.

It’s a ridiculously convoluted premise for a blockbuster, and the plot continues to twist and turn from there – albeit in mostly predictable ways. So it’s to The Fall Guy’s credit that its two-hour runtime breezes past in a flurry of sheer fun.

A large part of that is because Blunt and Gosling invest the entire endeavour with a surprising amount of heart. Emily Blunt is wonderful as Jody, carrying a passion for film-making and technical know-how with sincere concern for Colt’s wellbeing, a vulnerable streak and a willingness to set him on fire repeatedly in order to make her point. Ryan Gosling’s comic timing, meanwhile, gets another welcome showcase after Barbie, as he switches between Colt’s macho facade and his scared, bewildered and desperate reactions to actual peril.

Together, they are dynamite, from the moment they switch to their own walkie talkie frequency while chatting – a beautifully believable workplace touch – to the brilliant scene in which he’s confessing feelings to her over a bad telephone connection mid-shootout. Split-screen, space monster costumes and more repeatedly give them the opportunity to have fun while sparking chemistry all over the place – a large part of The Fall Guy’s pleasure is simply watching two friends with romantic feelings for each other enjoying each other’s company.

The concept, meanwhile, is an inspired opportunity to flex some action muscle, and the film doesn’t disappoint on that front either. David Leitch (Nobody, Deadpool 2) directs each set piece with an unfailing eye for both thrills and giggles. With a refreshing emphasis on the practical, the whole thing is made possible by an army of impeccable stunt people, who pull off punch-ups in skips being dragged down the road, fisticuffs on speeding boats and some blistering fisticuffs punctuated by the amusing inconvenience of prop weapons. By the time we get to the finale on the set of Jody’s sci-fi epic, the Mad Max-esque shenanigans are as entertainingly over-the-top as they are genuinely exciting.

The self-aware script by Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) turns this explosive romantic comedy into a heartfelt love letter to movies, as well as to stunt people, and a reminder of the feel-good buzz that a well-executed blockbuster can give to an audience. It’s testament to the magic of the movies that (in a lovely touch) the end credits are accompanied by behind-the-scenes footage of how each action sequence was filmed and, rather than dispel the illusion, it just makes it all the more special.

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