Plenty of fun in big-name action adventure romp
The Fall Guy (12A), (126 mins), Cineworld Cinemas
The Fall Guy offers plenty of good old-fashioned action adventure movie thrills with a good wallop of struggling romance thrown in – all part of real-life stunt man and director David Leitch’s love letter to stunt men and the unsung heroes of moviemaking.
It’s got a brilliant final half hour or so, non-stop action and endless twists and turns, which almost make you forget the fact that in truth it’s all a little bit convoluted at the start and maybe just a bit slow to get into its stride. Fortunately, it’s the kind of film that you’d happily forgive an awful lot of things – not least given the winning, sparky chemistry between its leads.
Ryan Gosling (Barbie, La La Land, Drive) stars as Colt Seavers, a stunt man who has gone AWOL from the business after taking a backbreaking tumble on a film set which may or may not have been an accident. But in moving away, he’s moved away from the love of his life, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) who was also working on the film.
Events conspire to get him back on track for a new film being made in Sydney where it just so happens that the director is now none other than Jody. There’s a cracking sequence where she speculates on the film’s love interest, directly paralleling just what exactly she herself is feeling now she’s faced with Colt once again. Stylishly done.
But with the movie’s star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylorjohnson) going missing, things take a much more serious turn through murky plotlines which somehow manage to get Colt framed for a murder we all know he’s completely innocent of. He’s on the run, the stakes couldn’t be higher and all those stunts he was doing for the movies are suddenly the means by which he might just save his life. And, who knows, win back Jody again – if only he can work out just what on earth is happening.
It's a film which is arguably just a little bit too selfindulgent in its set-up, but equally you could say it’s justified by the final rewards. It’s spectacularly done, always pushing the pace in the second half, always keeping you guessing and increasingly good fun.
Whatever he’s doing, Ryan Gosling is always brilliantly watchable, and he certainly is here with all those little expressions and an easy way with humour. And there is a proper old-fashioned buzz between him and his co-star Emily Blunt as more and more their way out of it all seems to be that they might just have to work together. It’s a great pairing, and Hannah Waddingham as the on-screen film’s ruthless producer adds plenty of value in all her efforts to hush up the star’s rather odd disappearance. There is villainy all around. There are plenty of chase sequences, some gorgeous shots of Sydney Harbour and the Opera House as everything comes together for The Fall Guy’s riveting finale. The film is possibly overlong, but the final impression it leaves is the fun, the excess, the style and the magnetism. It’s nicely undemanding too – and that counts for a lot.