The Fall Guy

Synopsis:  Former stuntman gets hired to track down a wayward movie star.

Perfect casting. That would be Ryan Gosling as stuntman Colt Seavers. In real life, a person as good looking as Ryan G. would surely be nudged away from incognito stunt work and into the spotlight.

In The Fall Guy, directed by former stuntman David Leitch, a real-life movie star plays a seasoned stuntman who relies on his years of experience to offset an aging battered body. Ryan G. looks to have a personal-trainer honed physique that is thankfully, unbattered.

The movie is based on a run-of-the mill 80’s TV series of the same name in which a stuntman moonlights as a bounty hunter. (I guess he wasn’t getting union pay & bennies.) I don’t know about the 80’s Colt Seavers, but 2020’s Colt is laidback, without a whiff of toxic masculinity. His love of stunting seems to keep him from getting too cynical about Hollywood and its surplus of massively ego’d  stars and directors.

As the movie opens, eighteen months prior to <now>, Colt is riding high, working as the stuntman body double to major movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The action star is a real diva and ATJ is clearly in on the joke that his character is a damned fool. Tom “VIP” Ryder seems to believe that he’s the same invincible hero offscreen– giving some Tom Cruise vibes there.

Colt is mixing business with pleasure on set, dallying with camera operator Jody Moreno. They seem to be keeping things to whispered flirty banter during working hours, lest human resources ask any questions. Emily Blunt is Jody. Ms. Blunt is so good in everything she’s in, that she makes her work look easy. Though, weirdly, she seems just the same person with RG on The Fall Guy‘s press tour as her character in the movie. Still, I like seeing her as the romantic foil in this comedic action flick better than watching her long-suffering wife in Oppenheimer. She had me chuckling at her character’s insistence to Colt that she does not, in fact, like Love Actually. We know you do. 

All is going well until an accident with one of Colt’s stunts. He ends up with a broken back, and out of the stunt game. When the movie jumps forward eighteen months, he’s working as a car valet. Unhappily. And he’s jettisoned his affair with Jody. Although he regrets it. Jody hasn’t been sitting around moping. She’s directing an action flick. Colt learns this when…

Producer Gail (Hannah Waddington) calls Colt with an offer: Come to Sydney where the film is being shot. He’ll have some work as a stuntman (His back will not thank him). He accepts, hoping he can get back together with Jody.

Once he’s there, though, it turns out that Gail wants him to find the wayward star that he had body doubled for.  Word is that he got involved with some shady drug dealers. I know, what other kind are there.

Jody is unhappy to see him. She never okay’d the producer’s idea.  Commence Jody berating him for ghosting her. Understandable. But you can’t help but root for Colt, what with his abject apologies and sad Ryan Gosling eyes. Cue the montage of happier times with Jody set to Taylor Swift’s All Too Well. Enjoy it, because the rest of the featured tunes are 80’s pop. Blech…

The “plot” clunks along, hinging on the mystery of star Tom Ryder’s disappearance. It’s a mystery in the same way that there is a mystery in21 Jump Street. But to be fair, the movie seems set on action and comedy, not superior sleuthing.

Being in Sydney, I was hoping for some Aussie cameos along the way.  Maybe Hugh Jackman as a beach bum or Rose Byrne as a club owner. Or the other way around would be okay too. No such luck. Maybe it’s because Hugh has room for only one friend named Ryan, and that would be Ryan Reynolds. And it would be hard to keep fair-skinned Rose B’s SPF’d enough.

However, Oz Landian Teresa Palmer as the star’s costar and girlfriend Iggy Starr makes a nice impression. She’s no shrinking violet, boldly ambushing Colt when he sneaks into the disappeared star’s apartment. To his credit, the athletic, but peaceable stuntman doesn’t want to fight anyone.

As it turns out, Sydney Harbor is surfacing as a glamorous backdrop for 21st Century movies in the way that San Francisco was in the 20th. In Anyone But You, luscious actors Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell find themselves dunked in the harbor. Watch out for the great white sharks! The Fall Guy features a nighttime boat chase. In both cases, harbor patrol is nowhere to be seen.

Besides delivering an entertaining two hours of film, the movie makes a case for better industry recognition of stuntpeople. In recent years, spokespeople have made the case that the Academy should reward stunt performances. After all if they can award someone doing off-camera work like hair & makeup, why not recognize stuntpeople’s athletic performances? Arguments have been made that Oscars would only encourage ever riskier stunt designs. Actually, I think the real reason goes back to high school. Stunt people are jocks and people who have been formed in theater, tech and the arts are geeks, of a sort. Why would they want to risk letting the jocks take over the cafeteria aka awards season?

Back to Ryan Gosling, I mean The Fall Guy. Colt Seavers could be an adrenaline junkie, but he’s played as a gentle guy. A gentle guy who just happens to be a kickass stuntman. Who happens to be Ryan Gosling, who can do any role, like Scarlett Johansson can. Who happened to be married to the other Ryan, Ryan Reynolds.

Sorry! Instead of thinking of stunts, The Fall Guy has got me thinking of actors with star power. And the magic of Hollywood, which the movie delivers in spades.

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  A-

Cut to the Chase:  Entertaining and engaging. Great stunts.

Humor Highlight: The foolish and vain movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) leaves ridiculous post-it notes all over his apartment as reminders and musings. My fave: Is it Mamoa or Momoa?