We warp back into the 1980's with a return of The Fall Guy...
For a brief synopsis, The Fall Guy introduces us to stuntman, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), who is trying to rekindle an old flame with now-director, Jody (Emily Blunt), whilst also finding himself in the sticky situation of figuring out what has happened to the lead actor, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor Johnson), who has suddenly disappeared. The plot develops in ingenious ways, with twists that had the audience in my cinema audibly reacting with surprise more than once.
The film lends itself to several genres: comedy, romance, and even crime. If I’m being honest, did I watch it again for the crime element? No. If I’m being brutally honest, I was sort of urging that part of it to wrap up, because it was starting to feel a bit strung out. On the other hand, I could have felt that way purely because I thought the film lent itself so well to the comedy and romance genres, so I was more excited for it to explore those in greater depth. (Note: get yourself someone who will call you, while on the run from bad guys, to ask you what song you sang at karaoke.) It’s not by any means just a chick-flick, though; you could absolutely watch it as a comedy with a romantic thread woven in. I think that’s one of the things I like so much about it; it does both genres so well that you could watch it for either.
The Fall Guy is just one of those films that kind of makes you ache to work on a film set.
The characterisations are definitely one aspect that makes the film so good at celebrating both genres. The dynamics between all the characters are full of quick wit and lines that made the audience laugh out loud. Yet it’s refreshing in the sense that this kind of a dynamic isn’t reserved for specific characters; it isn’t a case of there being one token ‘funny guy’, or one duo of characters who bounce off each other. All the characters have some great back and forth, even the villains. (Don’t even get me started on how much I disliked Aaron Taylor Johnson’s character! I like his character as an actual murderer in Bullet Train, but found Tom Ryder detestable. Credit where credit is due, he played the part very well.) Just to pique your interest further, I’ll give you some more factors that made The Fall Guy so good without any context. Getting emotional in a car to Taylor Swift? Check. A dog that only understands French? Check! A rogue Jason Momoa? Check. Unicorns? Check! (You’ll get it once you watch it.) And for any fans of the original TV series, The Unknown Stuntman is the song that plays as the credits roll, and check out the post-credits scene for some cameos from Lee Majors and Heather Thomas.
The Fall Guy is just one of those films that kind of makes you ache to work on a film set. It celebrates the stunt department, especially, in a fantastic way. The scene near the end where the stunt team go up against the bad guys? Immense! It did get me wondering though, with such a celebration of how much stunt people go through and how much they put on the line, does Ryan Gosling do any of his own stunts in the film? The answer is no, and was delivered in a way that truly celebrated the stunt people on the set of The Fall Guy while the credits rolled.
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