Monday 29 April 2024

OUT NOW: The Fall Guy (David Leitch, 2024)

Following a career-ending injury, Stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is parachuted back into action when the star who used to double, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), goes missing.


Enlisted as a stuntman/investigator by producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham), Colt is back in the viewfinder of director and former flame Jody (Emily Blunt).


Can Colt save the day? 





This might be the best David Leitch movie, and I still left it feeling nothing.


You can tell he is passionate about the subject.


But it is still a Leitch joint.


Directing is about making choices. 


It is a measure of taste, refracted through all the variables and structures of money, time, star ego and studio dictates.


This is along way of saying The Fall Guy suffers from the same problems as his previous movies: It is still too long, packed with unoriginal needle drops and too many extended comedic beats.


Leitch’s instincts are the most solid when he is constructing stunts, but he never figures out how to differentiate between the reel and real parts of his movie.


One of the big issues is that there is no differentiation between movie stunts and the real danger our hero is.


All the set pieces are constructed using the same cinematic language. There is no sense from the filmmakers that Colt is in danger.


It still feels like the movie is operating by the same logic as the action movie they are making. There is no contrast and therefore no irony (or stakes) to Sever’s predicament.


The movie benefits enormously from Gosling and Blunt. Their chemistry is fine, and they wring what pathos they can from the script.


Sadly, like other Leitch movies, The Fall Guy feels like it should be better than it is.


Related


Atomic Blonde


Deadpool 2


Hobbs & Shaw


Bullet Train


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