Now I have often gone on rants about sincerity in our movies of late, with so many frequently for my money being plagued by a constant winking quality that is beyond grating and beyond infuriating. After the likes of David Lietch’s last film Bullet Train, which despite having a few enjoyable moments did not entirely win me over to say the least, I was not entirely hopeful for The Fall Guy which in so many ways seemed to be more of the winking fare. There was even a very early joke to the effect of Ryan Gosling interrupting his own narration – “He’s Tom Ryder, the world’s biggest- Well, no you know who Tom Ryder is”. Instantly annoying. However this gag was in the middle of a rather well orchestrated opening one take that was fuelled by a very winning rom-com dialogue between Gosling and Emily Blunt. Could it be? We had a big budget action-rom-com that was going to be successful in all fields? No, of course not, but The Fall Guy is for the most part an enjoyable outing.
There is an
element of sure-fire success with the elements of The Fall Guy that make
its averageness all the more infuriating to be honest, because at the end of
the day that is the very best one can refer to The Fall Guy as; average.
Not painfully so, not even egregiously so, just simply fine and dandy. David
Lietch as a director is somebody I am very hit or miss with, for instance I often
exclaim the joys of the now underrated Atomic Blonde and I for one
rather enjoyed his Hobbs and Shaw entry into the Fast and Furious cannon,
but Bullet Train really was a movie that rubbed me comedically the wrong
way. The Fall Guy is certainly more enjoyable than that film, but once
again comes on the crest of the absolute final straw one can take with the
winking comedy and knowing references. Fall Guy is enjoyable at least
and with its action places a major focus on the stunning stunt work that propels
the film as its background and also in the actual work being done on screen,
however like so many recent films the majority of these stunts are allegedly bettered
or at least effected in some way by shoddy CGI that does nothing but make one
question about how effected the stunts being done actually are. It’s not until
the end credits when you see how many were done for real, so the inclusion of
glossy CGI additions really did make this film so needlelessly worse. The
comedy and plotting of this film too leaves much to be desired and the final
act of the film plays out in the most bizarre way by having much of the reveals
or possible exciting revelations simply be told to us prior in the means of a
plan and then we watch that plan succeed only a moment later. It’s just not
very good plotting. However the film does boast a wonderful star turn as always
from Ryan Gosling and much of the cast beyond him also. Gosling and Blunt for
instance have a lot of believable chemistry and the pairs romance is rootable
for and believable and largely enjoyable and thankfully becomes the crux of the
film and the film is certainly at its best when leaning into this facet of the plot.
Hannah Waddingham and Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Winston Duke all appear for
brief and memorable roles, but again this is Gosling’s film, not just in the
sense of him as the lead, but in this case I do mean it more so in the sense
that his charisma and charm feels constantly like we are viewing an uphill battle
for the star, working against the weakness of the film he is within.
A perfectly fine 6/10, bordering on 7 if I’m feeling generous, but I don’t think that would be wholly truthful. The Fall Guy on paper is all we talk about wanting, but on the surface of the actual film, it just makes a few too many very avoidable errors. Lietch as an action film-maker is far more proficient than as a romantic one and yet it was the romance that kept me invested. The film’s biggest issue perhaps is simply that it’s not very funny at all and for all the revelatory and due commending of the stunt community and all of the enjoyable needle-drops you want, it’s lack of humour is very showing. There is however charisma and charm in abundance and Gosling really does a stellar job at leading this otherwise mediocre feature.
P.S. The box office supposed failure of this against the success of Anyone But You does not exactly bode well for movies that I enjoying watching, but we will find out what lessons the ever knowing studios take. I’m going to take a wild guess that it’s the wrong ones.
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Thomas Carruthers
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