Attractive people do fun things

ACTION COMEDY

“The Fall Guy”

Premiere in cinemas on Friday 26 April

USA. 12 years. Director: David Leicht

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily BluntHannah Waddingham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke

No, now Hollywood is not ready for Easter.

An action comedy that doesn’t rely on characters we already know well? As not is “based” on a cartoon, or “inspired” by an amusement park attraction or a video game? (OK, there was a 1980s TV show called “The Fall Guy,” from which this movie borrows a couple of personal names. But the similarities stop there).

With two movie stars who are allowed to be movie stars, and who have a palpable, witty chemistry between them? Which is not only fun to look at, but gives a delicious feeling that it has been fun to make?

Can’t help it, but I’m moved. Bear with me when I’m now going to exaggerate “The Fall Guy” a little more than it strictly deserves.

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) – manly name – is a stuntman in Hollywood. A dangerous job, and the action star he’s a regular stand-in for, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is a bloated jerk. But fun, more fun than cycling for Foodora, and with nice perks.

For example, the opportunity to meet people like Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), a camera operator who dreams of one day directing her own films.

Too good to be true? Of course. One day, Seavers suffers a nasty injury. It sends him into a depression so deep that he does something no mentally healthy man, straight or gay, would ever do: He stops answering the phone when Emily Blunt calls.

The knot on the thread lasts for 18 months. Until agent Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) calls and asks him if it’s time to get back on the sawmill again. She and Tom Ryder are currently recording in Sydney, Australia (obviously there are good incentive schemes down there now). The carrot is this: Jody is directing.

Speaking of Ryan Gosling! VG has previously spoken to the actor about the classic “The Notebook”: (The review continues below the clip)

Seavers shakes off his despondency, and gets on the plane. Once there, he takes the ex-eye stone on the bed, and will have to prove that he regrets, regrets, regrets on his idiotic behavior.

The two cackle like Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in a film from the 1940s, but barely manage to work together for the sake of “art”. Everything they say and do professionally become metaphors for what happens to them privately.

Something more drama is needed for this to become a film, and this is provided by the jerk Ryder disappearing without a trace from the film set. No one knows where he is, but everyone knows that he is heavily drunk and paranoid. Has something criminal happened? It has it. Something tragic, but silly, which will make it even more demanding for Seavers and Moreno to resume the turtle dove business.

If you’re in the market for a demonstration of what star shine and charisma can mean for a film of this type, you don’t have to do much more than watch director David Leicht’s previous film, the tiringly overstimulated “Bullet Train” (2022), up against this.

Note how Brad Pitt tries but fails to carry the “Bullet Train”. Then notice how Gosling and Blunt give “The Fall Guy” wings.

Yes, this script is better than what Leicht had to work with last time. But it is not so fantastic either. Not governed– festive in itself. For example, it’s hard to care about the slow crime plot. It is all the easier to like the charming couple who involuntarily become part of it.

It’s an unreserved joy to see Gosling flourish as a comedic actor again (thanks, Ken!) – rather than in another one of the many silent, moody roles he chose after Drive (2011). If you’re going to criticize “The Fall Guy” for anything, it’s that the chemistry between him and Blunt is so hearty that it’s a shame they don’t spend even larger parts of the film together.

Speaking of (2) Emily Blunt! VG has previously spoken to her about the western series “The English”:
(The review continues below the clip)

But it can be lived with. There is enough of the two for this to be something as rare as an action comedy that should appeal to all genders and all ages.

It is also satisfying to see that Hollywood’s anonymous heroes, the stunt people – a vulnerable group in the age of computer animation – get their minutes in the sun, and that the script makes itself available for self-irony on behalf of its own industry. Plus for the “French-speaking” dog too. And lots of other fun trivia.

It is too early to call Hollywood healthy. But hope is bright green. “The Fall Guy” is at least two hours and six minutes long the dream of a better entertainment alive.