The first weekend in May signals the start of summer (at the movies, at least). It's a weekend that has been a launching pad for "Spider-Man," "X-Men," the debut of "Iron Man" — and just about every other superhero in between. Director David Leitch's "The Fall Guy" wouldn't dare aim for the heights of the Marvel machine, but is hoping to successfully ignite the summer box office.
"The Fall Guy" is an interesting curtain raiser for the summer movie season. Adapted from an '80s television show of the same name, it might be based on a known property, but "The Fall Guy" doesn't carry the power to draw the masses like a friendly neighborhood webslinger.
Between a pandemic and dual industry strikes, conventions and calendars have been thrown into a bag and shaken up like Scrabble tiles, which leaves a movie like "The Fall Guy" to set the tone for what will draw audiences to multiplexes during a season known for doing so. That's where star power comes in.
The pairing of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt — teaming up after sharing in the success of "Barbenheimer" last summer — might spell a chemistry home run on paper, but there is something consistently off about "The Fall Guy" in that the movie never truly capitalizes on the shared charisma and presence of the two stars.
Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, an experienced stuntman who has been standing in for movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) for some time, and is currently dating Jody (Blunt), a camera operator and aspiring director. During a shoot, a stunt goes horribly awry and causes Colt to suffer injuries that take him away from movie sets for over a year. He and Jody drift apart, but then Colt gets a call out of the blue from producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) saying Jody has requested his stuntwork on her directorial debut. Of course, that's all Colt needs to hear to get back in the game.
The setup of "The Fall Guy," which shows the machinations of producing a movie and the detail that goes into performing a single stunt, is the most interesting part of the story. Once Colt arrives in Australia for Jody's movie "Metal Storm," the movie shifts into a generic action comedy. Tom is the star of "Metal Storm," but has gone missing and it becomes of the most importance that Colt leads the charge to find him.
Leitch, a former stunt performer himself, knows how to shoot an action scene, but the attempted marriage of comedy and action never synchronize throughout "The Fall Guy." The movie's big budget ambitions seem to be in a constant race to catch up with the film's execution, which creates an entirely uneven experience. At 126 minutes, "The Fall Guy" eventually begins to feel like it's just chasing its own tail.
Gosling is clearly having the time of his life, which can translate to the audiences' experience, but his scenes with Blunt are unusually separated for a movie aiming to sell their chemistry. Blunt, who is undeniably funny, is saddled with an underwritten part, which refuses to capitalize on her movie star charisma. The remainder of the cast, including Winstone Duke and "Everything Everywhere All at Once" Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu, aren't given much material to worth with, either.
"The Fall Guy" has been billed as a "love letter" (a grossly overused term in movie promotion and criticism) to the stunt community. It's somewhat true; the movie does have a great reverence towards those unsung heroes of moviemaking who risk their lives for a cool shot or stunt on a daily basis and are never heralded for their work (there has been a constant push for the Academy to add a 'stunt' category at the Oscars for years). As a peak behind the curtains, "The Fall Guy" can be entertaining; it's just a shame that its pesky plot has to get in the way.
Matt Passantino is a freelance contributor to CITY.