The Fall Guy Movie Review: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt's Action Romance Is A Fun Ode To Filmmaking

About The Fall Guy

The hero of The Fall Guy is a stuntman, Colt Seavers, played by Ryan Gosling. The action romance is a madcap adventure that kicks off summer blockbuster season and reminds you one of the reasons you got to the movies – to see stuff get blown up. Director David Leitch‘s film highlights the nameless men and women behind your favourite action scenes. Using Gosling and Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt as the amiable leads, The Fall Guy is a delightful love story with wonderful beats of comedy.

The Fall Guy: Plot

Inspired by the 1980s American TV series, The Fall Guy is a behind-the-scenes romance between camera operator-turned director Jody (Blunt) and Colt (Gosling), stunt double to one of the top stars in Hollywood. After a stunt goes horribly wrong, Colt disappears to lick his wounds. But he is summoned back to work on Jody’s directorial debut, Metalstorm, a sci-fi cosmic love story, where the exes have an awkward reunion. But Colt finds himself involved in much more dangerous plot as a situation threatens to derail Jody’s first film as director. With the film and his career on the line, Colt does what he knows best, he gets into action mode.

The Fall Guy: Writing and Direction

Drew Pearce’s screenplay is warm, heartfelt and makes you laugh out loud more than once, even though the main plot gets a bit silly at times. This is clearly a film made by those who love the movies and what it represents. There are several inside jokes about filmmaking and the movie business that manage to translate over.

Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train filmmaker Leitch, who himself was a stunt professional before, seems to be having a blast dropping his characters in outlandish situations. The action sequences that Colt finds himself in repeatedly are situations in which he has been preparing himself all his career. The title of the film has a nice nod to the predicament Colt finds himself in for the second half of the movie.

The Fall Guy: Performances

Over the last few years, there’s been a lot writeups about how there are no more movie stars anymore. With The Fall Guy, I’d like to present exhibits A and B. Both A-listers Gosling and Blunt are coming off two massive hits from 2023 with Barbie and Oppenheimer respectively. In this film, they combine their star power for fantastic chemistry as reunited exes. Whether they are bantering about listening to Taylor Swift or arguing about motivation in scene, their chemistry is always entertaining. A charismatic and self-deprecating Gosling especially nails the comedic portions.

Gosling and Blunt are backed by a great supporting cast, with Hannah Waddington as the harried film producer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the spoilt movie star Tom Ryder and Winston Duke as Metalstorm stunt’s coordinator. There’s also a scene-stealing cute dog named Jean Claude who only responds to commands in French.

The Fall Guy: Critique

The Screen Actors Guild is one of the few mainstream awards organisations that honours stunt performers. The Oscars recently announced that they would be adding a new category for casting from 2025. The Fall Guy makes a great argument as to why stunt professionals should be next on that list. From acting, comedy, romance to meta quips about the movie business, The Fall Guy checks all the boxes for a good time at the movies this summer.

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