The Fall Guy: a perfect hybrid of action, comedy and romance

Stunt work and romance aren’t often paired up in film but they work very well together in the recently released comedy-and-action-packed The Fall Guy.

The film, based on the 1980s television series of the same name, was written by Drew Pearce and directed by Bullet Train’s David Leitch, but it is its lead star, Ryan Gosling, whose garnering most of the attention.

Previously seen as Ken in the Barbie movie, Gosling is this time partnered with Emily Blunt in an onscreen chemistry that really works.

Romance and all, The Fall Guy is a fast, fun two-hour-long frolic that never stalls.

Filmed in Sydney, many of the scenes boast magical cityscapes – giving usual locations like LA and New York the flip while enabling Australian audiences to play spot the Aussie icon.

The enjoyable stunt action sequences (and they just keep coming) are stylised to absolute precision, showcasing signature production values from director Leitch who draws from his own work as a stuntman for 20 years (and we all love a bit of meta, eh?).

The plot is simple enough to follow: Jody (Blunt) is a first-time director working on a mega movie production, Metalstorm (a humorous homage to Dune crossed with Mad Max). Colt (Gosling) is called to the set to reinstate himself as a stunt double for a spoilt diva lead actor Tom Ryder, who has gone mysteriously missing.

A physical injury from Colt’s last film, where he nearly died in a stunt accident, results in a self-imposed long hiatus nursing shame and a broken heart for giving up on his true love. It is his unexpected disappearance of 18 months without a word that angers girlfriend at the time, Jody, who was the key cinematographer on that film. Fast-forward to Metalstorm where manipulative slick-talking producer Gail (love to hate her) insists on Colt returning to form, albeit reluctantly. She secretly tasks him on a dangerous mission to save the day by saving the film and saving Ryder by finding him.

The obstacle is that Jody not only doesn’t know of this change in casting but when she finds out, she cannot forgive Colt and is hellbent in making him suffer while servicing the action stunts as her vengeance. Hereby Leitch successfully makes a clever screwball comedy romance of old, proving the comedic talents of Gosling riding on his Kennergy fame and Blunt’s convincing romance and comedic timing.

Fun fact: the Australian team who orchestrated the stunts in this film achieved a Guinness World record in the beach car chase scene for the number of canon rolls: 8.5!

Here, real life stuntman Aussie, Logan Holiday, incredibly escapes unharmed and gestures the ever-famous stunt code of ‘thumbs up’ – an ongoing gag between the real-life stunt crew and now Gosling’s Colt and fictional stunt team (and featured actual footage in the end credits).

The Fall Guy – while no art film – is a gleefully tailor-made “action-thriller-rom-com”. Now, that’s a formula for escapist entertainment if I ever saw one.

Annette McCubbin

‘The Fall Guy’ is in cinemas now. View the trailer, below.