Ryan Gosling’s Charm Elevates ‘The Fall Guy’
Check out my quick video review of The Fall Guy on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and follow me on Letterboxd to see what I’m watching.
Is Ryan Gosling charming enough to turn the action movie remake of a 1980s TV show into a successful film? The Fall Guy is certainly hoping the answer is yes.
Gosling is Colt Seavers, a stuntman who is down on his luck after being injured on the set. He’s pulled back into the movie business when he heads to Australia to join the stunt team of a new blockbuster directed by the love of his life, Jody (Emily Blunt).
From there, Colt has to team up with his old stunt buddy Dan (Winston Duke) to uncover a plot involving an unhinged movie star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and a pushy producer (Hannah Waddingham).
Gosling is essentially playing an extension of his character from The Nice Guys, which completely works with the tone of this film. He’s good with comedy in a way that elevates the script he’s working with.
And let’s be honest, the plot of The Fall Guy is mostly convoluted nonsense, but that doesn’t necessarily take away from the fun.
The story is really just a means to an end and that end is showing you amazing stunt work, showcasing the charm of Gosling and Blunt, and giving you an entertaining time at the movie theater—and it works well with those elements.
The whole movie is like an ode to the stunt community, something I can get behind. I’ve said before that there needs to be an Oscar category for stunts and they hit that message hard here and for good reason. We’ve seen with movies like Monkey Man and Boy Kills World that stunt teams can make a small indie movie feel like a big-budget blockbuster, and The Fall Guy is a celebration of that.
So yes, if you think too hard about the plot you’ll start questioning some of the more egregious convoluted twists and turns, but the movie still delivers great action and a lot of fun.
