Ryan Gosling is really cool.
This has been apparent for quite some time now. He’s a specific type of cool, the type of cool that’s able to pull off dark and twisted as easily as earnest and silly – the type of cool where he can do something that you might otherwise find annoying, but, by virtue of him being Ryan Gosling and all, whatever that thing is is suddenly not so bad.
“The Fall Guy,” Gosling’s new starring vehicle directed by David Leitch, begins with a voiceover, which – lucky for me – is one of those things that I generally find annoying. But as “The Fall Guy” goes on, it becomes clear that the voiceover is just one of a long line of moments where Leitch and screenwriter Drew Pearce want you to notice the movie-making mechanics in a way that audiences don’t often experience.
“The Fall Guy,” based on a television series from the 1980s, has been described as a love letter to stuntmen and the work they do, and in so many ways it is (stay for the credits, a really fun montage where the filmmakers show you how everything was done). But the stunts are just one piece of the puzzle, and not the most impressive one. At its core, “The Fall Guy” is not just a movie about stuntmen, but rather a movie about movies and the people who love and make them. Meta narratives can be hit or miss, and Leitch himself has worked on some that feel a little smug with how clever they are. But “The Fall Guy” employs a team of actors, led by Gosling, who can do earnestness without being cloying, and who can wink at the camera without tripping over their own ego to do so.
Alongside that voiceover, the beginning of “The Fall Guy” introduces us to Colt Seavers (Gosling), the coolest Hollywood stuntman who has ever graced a set. His life is pretty perfect – he shows up to work, flirts with his camera operator girlfriend Jody (Emily Blunt), then spends his day performing death-defying stunts. But when one of those stunts goes horribly wrong, Colt leaves the industry and Jody behind – until, that is, Jody finally gets a chance to direct her own movie. When the film’s big star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), goes missing, Colt is called in to figure out what’s going on and make sure Jody’s movie gets made.
Leitch got his start in the industry as a stuntman, and his background lends a personal touch to “The Fall Guy.” It’s not the kind of movie that normally has that particular characteristic – a characteristic that doesn’t really have a place in some of Leitch’s other films, such as “Deadpool 2,” or “Bullet Train.” Despite its action and broad comedy, “The Fall Guy” has a sweetness to it that extends beyond its appreciation for stunts to an appreciation for the people who make up the entire movie-making apparatus (except for producers – the true villains of every story, if “The Fall Guy” has anything to say about it).
From the director, to the stunt coordinator, to the extras, there is no role too small or too inconsequential. There’s even appreciation (however begrudgingly) for the film’s star, Tom Ryder. Ryder is viewed as an annoyance by the crew (and becomes something a bit more sinister as the film goes on), but a pest can be tolerated if the pest is talented enough. In one scene, Colt watches Ryder recite Shakespeare, reluctantly biting out through clenched teeth that Ryder is, in fact, a good actor. I don’t know if Tom Ryder is supposed to be analogous to any particular action star, but if so, they can sleep at night knowing that even if people think they’re annoying, they at least also think they’re talented.
The stunts in “The Fall Guy” are perfectly fine, the best part about them not really their grandeur, but rather how they comedically benefit the plot. The more endearing parts of “The Fall Guy” call out not the mechanics of the stunts, but the craft of filmmaking itself. A phone conversation between Jody and Colt where they debate the merits of using split screen all plays out on – what else? – a split screen. There are numerous references to other action films like “The Last of the Mohicans” and “The Fugitive” throughout. There’s a world where all of these references overpower the movie, or feel a little too cute for their own good. But “The Fall Guy” isn’t using them to make a joke for a joke’s sake, but rather fitting them into the story with the goal of showing us the work at play. From the opening credits, which show us the actors’ names in what appears to be the script for the film, to the how-to stunt montage at film’s end, most everything is done in the name of reminding the audience how much work goes into what you’re watching.
It’s an interesting approach, asking us to notice the machinations at work rather than lose ourselves in the magic of the movies. But for the most part, it works – and the film has movie magic in spades in other areas. From the moment Blunt and Gosling first occupy the frame together, their chemistry leaps off the screen. Even when (or maybe especially when) they’re upset with each other, there’s a yearning between them and a synchronization to their banter that’s hard to come by. Blunt, in particular, almost feels like she stepped off the set of “His Girl Friday.” There’s a quickness to her wit that plays well off of Gosling, who feels like a more athletic version of his character from “The Nice Guys” (that is to say, a bit of a loveable idiot).
The way Jody looks at Colt for the majority of the film is a nice analogue to watching “The Fall Guy” itself – however much annoyance she might try to muster up in her expression, at the end of the day, she can’t help but smile. When something’s this charming, you can’t stay mad for too long.