Ryan Gosling's good graces ground The Fall Guy's meta-movie shenanigans

There's a perilous stunt at the heart of The Fall Guy.

More dangerous than the record-breaking truck roll, or surfing a metal trash bin across the streets of Sydney. This is a movie torn between two tracks.

Part is a super-charged satire on the excesses of Hol‐ lywood. Much of The Fall Guy takes place on the set of a fic‐ tional interstellar epic Metal‐ storm. Imagine Mad Max meets Dune, except the Mad magazine version. (Yes, I'm old.)

But behind the callous producers and Easter eggs for the Comic-Con crowd is something sweeter and sim‐ pler. It's about Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) a director with her first big break, still smart‐ ing from her relationship with Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), the best stuntman in the biz who ghosted her after a high-wire fall went wrong.

If you a fan of the 1980s Lee Majors TV series, there isn't much to see here. I mean, there's the truck - the conspicuous gold-and-brown GMC that Colt drives around and, of course, Gosling has taken the TV character's name and profession. As the original theme song goes, he's "the unknown stuntman who makes Clint Eastwood look so fine."

So, in a way, the film is ac‐ tually balanced on three legs: the action spoof, the ro‐ mance and also a tribute to the unsung heroes of the in‐ dustry - stunt performers.

It's directed by David Leitch, who got one of his first breaks stunt doubling for Brad Pitt in Fight Club. Af‐ ter segueing from stunt coordinator to director, with Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train, Leitch has established himself as one of Hollywood's go-to action au‐ teurs. His movies are like fire‐ crackers, filled with bright colourful explosions but, once the smoke clears, the memory fades.

With The Fall Guy Leitch fi‐ nally has a film with more to say than the cliche "when you fall down get back up again" ethos which this movie mocks. With his focus on the behind-the-scenes planning that action se‐ quences require, a large part of the film is an affectionate tribute to the men and women who risk their bodies for our entertainment.

Though, like many of his films, this love letter is about as subtle as a fireball. Will you see Gosling and his onscreen stunt co-ordinator, played by Winston Duke, bro down with a fist bump and hand shake while yelling "Yeah boy, stunts!"? Yes you will.

So, if we're to make a movie celebrating Holly‐ wood's human punching bags, who better than Gosling? Like Harrison Ford, the more battered and bruised he gets, somehow the better. Who winces like Gosling? Who grimaces like Gosling?

And the jabs start early as the movie opens with Gosling doubling for Tom Ryder, the supercilious star played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

As Gosling prepares for another take, there's a con‐ ference around the video monitor. Ryder mutters that Colt is showing "too much" of his own face, forcing him to do another dangerous take.

WATCH | Gosling on the red carpet:

While some of the metamovie moments are too cute by far, what rings true is the disposable nature of stunt performers. They do the most dangerous job and if they succeed, they're forgot‐ ten. Speaking of disposable, that brings us to to plot which centres on the disap‐ pearance of Ryder.

Colt is brought into Metal‐ storm by the producer - a diet-coke-addicted schemer slurping increasingly bigger tumblers played with sceneshredding abandon by Han‐ nah Waddingham. Improba‐ bly, she asks Colt to help find him.

Watching Gosling smash through doors and get mixed up in a scheme involving Ry‐ der feels like thin gruel com‐ pared to far superior detec‐ tive stories such the Gosling and Russell Crowe vehicle The Nice Guys. But we didn't come here for the plot. (Well if you did, I'm sorry.) We came for a lark, and on that Leitch and screenwriter Drew Pearce serve up plenty.

There's the drug-laced night‐ club fight where Gosling transforms into something like a Street Fighter battle scene. Or his haphazard at‐ tempts to solve the mystery while battling stubborn room cards, hallucinations and fending off bad guys with movie props.

Along for the ride is Win‐ ston Duke, underutilized as Dan, Colt's long-time stunt co-ordinator, and the equally wasted Stephanie Hsu as Ry‐ der's ambitious assistant. While the action set pieces are fun and a fantastic forum for old-fashioned stunt spec‐ tacles, it's the screwball chemistry between Jody and Colt that fuels The Fall Guy's best bits.

Like any good romance there's a misunderstanding the stuntman is under the impression the director asked for him. Instead Jody, now Colt's boss, uses her leverage to put him through his paces. There's an awk‐ ward on-set conversation about a character's motiva‐ tion through a megaphone when Gosling delightfully squirms while being set on fire and thrown repeatedly against a wall.

Even better are the quiet moments; Jody's amusing awkwardness sitting in the cab of Colt's truck. Like Elliot Gould, Gosling is one of those rare leading men, tough enough to play the hero but unafraid to let his guard down and share his softer side. It's that vulnera‐ bility that makes Gosling so appealing.

As someone who's have some brief interactions with Gosling on carpets, he comes as a decent guy, even gamely attempting to answer a re‐ porter's awkward questions. There's an earnest quality that cuts through, letting us know he doesn't take the movie star swagger too seri‐ ously. Sure The Fall Guy has a a few moments that oversell Colt's sensitive side, but if the film's worst offence is being schmaltzy, Gosling earns it.

Ironically, taking stunt performers and turning them into blue-collar super-heroes able to fight off mercenaries undercuts Leitch's plan to celebrate the real people who make movies magic.

But at its core The Fall Guy isn't a documentary, or even a satire. As much as it pokes fun at Hollywood's bloated blockbusters, in the end it's a big dumb fun film with a charming couple at its centre. For that part, no spe‐ cial effects or stunt doubles are required.