Movie Review: ‘The Fall Guy’

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt lead the action-packed yet overcooked ‘The Fall Guy,’ which does stuntpeople justice but lets its story and characters down.

(L to R) Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers and Emily Blunt is Judy Moreno in 'The Fall Guy,' directed by David Leitch.

Opening in theaters on May 3rd is ‘The Fall Guy,’ starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Winston Duke, Stephanie Hsu, and Teresa Palmer.

Initial Thoughts

The best part about ‘The Fall Guy’ is its clear affection and loving respect for stuntpeople and the incredibly dangerous work they do to make movies as exciting as possible. Some of the film’s many – almost too many – action sequences are designed just for this. It’s too bad, then, that the rest of the film is hampered by a sloppy script and halting pacing that the undeniable charm of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt can only do so much to smooth over. It’s all in the execution, and ‘The Fall Guy’ never commits to what kind of film it wants to be.

Story and Direction

(L to R) Director David Leitch and Ryan Gosling (as Colt Seavers) on the set of 'The Fall Guy.'

‘The Fall Guy’ is based loosely – very loosely – on the hit 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors as a stuntman who uses his skills to moonlight as a bounty hunter. Aside from the title and the main character’s name, however, nothing else remains of the series in this film from stuntman-turned-director David Leitch (‘John Wick,’ ‘Deadpool 2,’ ‘Bullet Train’). In this version, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is quite satisfied with just being a stuntman – even if the star he’s been doubling for six years, the insecure and self-obsessed Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), earns all the glory for Seavers’ risky, often awe-inspiring stunts.

All that comes crashing down, however, when Colt suffers a severe injury on the set that takes him out of commission for a year, reduces him to working as a valet, and sends him into a deep depression. It also estranges him from his girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), an aspiring director who in the interim lands her feature directorial debut – a sci-fi blockbuster starring none other than Ryder.

But then Colt gets a call out of the blue from the movie’s producer, Gail (Hannah Waddingham), who insists that Colt fly down to Australia to perform stunts on the film. Fearful of getting back on that horse, so to speak, Colt nevertheless heads down to the set in the hope that he can pick up his career and rekindle the spark with Jody. But when it turns out that Ryder has gone missing from the shoot, Colt is tasked with finding him – and discovers that Ryder’s disappearance may be part of a much more sinister plot than most Hollywood thrillers.

Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling attend as Universal Pictures presents a special screening of 'The Fall Guy' at the AMC Grove in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.

(L to R) Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling attend as Universal Pictures presents a special screening of 'The Fall Guy' at the AMC Grove in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages. Copyright: ©2024 ABImages.

There’s no question that Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt both have charisma and screen presence to spare, and their verbal jousting and fast-paced repartee often provides enough entertainment to just get by when ‘The Fall Guy’ lags in the pacing department. There’s also no question that David Leitch loves the profession he came up in, and the movie goes to great lengths to show just how stuntpeople do their jobs – you may come away from the movie with a newfound respect for the craft (and an understanding of why stuntpeople really do deserve to get their own Oscar category).

But the movie itself is never quite sure what it wants to be. Is it a rom-com? A movie industry satire? An action thriller? It tries to be all three, but the script by Drew Pearce (‘Hotel Artemis’) never leans fully into any of those genres, creating a tonal and narrative hodgepodge that doesn’t quite come together as a cohesive whole or has much of anything to say. The tonal shifts give ‘The Fall Guy’ a herky-jerky feel, with some scenes coming to a standstill while the action sequences are frantic if exceptionally well-staged (although one highly destructive chase through the streets of Sydney has one wondering, even in the reality of the film, why not a single cop shows up).

Of the narrative’s three threads, the mystery involving Ryder’s disappearance is the weakest and most easily dispensable: it comes across as merely a means to create some action scenes. The romance probably plays the strongest, thanks to Gosling and Blunt’s chemistry, but even aspects of that are contrived (it’s kind of murky why the relationship ended in the first place). As for the film’s satirical aspects, they jump in and out of the story, fighting for space with Leitch’s yearning to show the below-the-line folks in the best possible light.

No Stunt Casting Here

Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers in 'The Fall Guy,' directed by David Leitch.

Anyone who watched the Oscars could see that Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt had comic chemistry together as presenters, and that connection is evident in ‘The Fall Guy’ as well. The two leads are the strongest aspect of the movie. Gosling’s comedic chops are on full display again, and he can’t help but be endearing and watchable even if he is playing a variation on the lovable but dim persona we’ve seen in ‘Barbie’ and ‘The Nice Guys.’ His Colt Seavers can barely articulate himself in front of Blunt’s Jody as the story begins, locked in his own sense of failure, but his character does evolve by the climax.

Like Gosling, Blunt is always a striking, strong presence on screen, and her Jody is someone who lets her own ambitions – her heartfelt desire to become a director – get in the way of real life to a degree. One of the best aspects of the movie is the way in which Jody and Colt initially communicate through the action they’re staging on the set; as she sets him on fire over and over again, among other things, they keep talking about how to fix the movie’s third act, when clearly they’re discussing what happened to their own broken relationship. Moments like that are clever indicators of the movie’s better intentions.

Stephanie Hsu, Hannah Waddingham and Winston Duke attend as Universal Pictures presents a special screening of 'The Fall Guy' at the AMC Grove in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.

(L to R) Stephanie Hsu, Hannah Waddingham and Winston Duke attend as Universal Pictures presents a special screening of 'The Fall Guy' at the AMC Grove in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages. Copyright: ©2024 ABImages.

The most hilarious supporting character is Taylor-Johnson’s Tom Ryder, who also represents the film’s most satirical aspects (we have to wonder which major real-life A-lister this narcissistic, petty, spoiled man-child was patterned after). His complete insecurity in the face of Colt’s immense physical talents, his inclination to believe that his delivery of even the most brainless rallying-cry speech to a crowd of extras is some sort of Shakespearean monologue, and the post-it notes that cover his apartment – constant little reminders to himself that often contradict each other – are spot-on, and Taylor-Johnson plays him at a slight remove, as if the Ryder persona is just another role for this rather small person.

The rest of the cast are terrific in smaller roles, even if many of them don’t get much to do. Hannah Waddingham (‘Ted Lasso’) fares best as Gail, the producer who knows exactly what to say to everyone and how to manipulate them to get what she wants, while Winston Duke (M’Baku from the ‘Black Panther’ movies) is a welcome wingman who we’d like to see more of. Stephanie Hsu (‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’) and Teresa Palmer (‘A Discovery of Witches’) also make good impressions even if they largely disappear from the second half of the film.

Final Thoughts

Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers in 'The Fall Guy,' directed by David Leitch.

‘The Fall Guy’ has crowd-pleaser written all over it: a couple of big, attractive leads in a zany rom-com scenario, a mystery of sorts at its center, and a parade of “watch this one” action setpieces serving as its spine. Some of its elements get their chance to shine, but only intermittently, and not enough to make ‘The Fall Guy’ the fully satisfying popcorn picture it’s clearly engineered to be.

Luckily, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have enough sheer star power to keep the movie from becoming the kind of empty tentpole that it pokes fun at (with ‘Metalstorm,’ the ‘Dune’ knockoff movie inside the movie), and if David Leitch and Drew Pearce found a more seamless way to blend their romance with a bit more satirical zing, we’d be rooting for them all the way.

‘The Fall Guy’ receives 6 out of 10 stars.

The Fall Guy

"Fall hard."

PG-132 hr 7 minMar 1st, 2024

Showtimes & Tickets

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What is the plot of ‘The Fall Guy’?

After a severe injury sidelines him for a year, stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is recruited to perform stunts for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in a new epic directed by Colt’s ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Ryder’s sudden disappearance from the shoot, however, not only complicates Colt’s attempt to get back in Jody’s good graces, but finds the fall guy enmeshed in an increasingly sinister plot.