David Leitch’s The Fall Guy is, in many respects, a love letter to the stunt performers that have allowed cinema to function properly for many a decade. At this level, the film definitely excels. Stuntman Colt Seavers’ (Ryan Gosling) opening voiceover monologue keys us in to the philosophy of the stunt performer: they keep everything looking exciting and propulsive, but their job is to be invisible by design. The best stunt performer disappears. Remember this; it will be important later.

Leitch’s comedy-action-romance benefits from the residual effects of the dump-truck of charisma that was Ryan Gosling in Barbie. Fittingly, the film opens the 2024 Summer movie season and promises an across-the-board crowd-pleasing experience. I think here, too, the film excels. You will struggle to find another action film in theaters right now this light-hearted and inoffensive in its PG-13 antics.

However, I see this crowd-pleasing sheen to also work against The Fall Guy in one or two key areas. Mr. Seavers is desperately in love with up-and-coming film director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). After suffering a back-breaking injury during a stunt on one of her movies, Colt fades into isolation and disappears from Jody’s life. Whatever hope of a budding romance blossoming is nipped during this year of self-alienation, during which time Colt soft retires from stunt work and takes up a job as a valet while he nurses his back.

When the A-list actor for whom Colt served as stunt double, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), mysteriously vanishes from the set of Jody’s next movie (the highly anticipated Metalstorm), his manager Gail (Hannah Waddingham) tasks Colt with finding him. She does so by first hiring him on Metalstorm, which reunites Colt and Jody and forces Colt to face the consequences of his actions.

Except, these consequences are slight, as is the tension in Colt and Jody’s failed romance. Given that the film requires us to be immediately and forever endeared to both characters, and because both actors ooze charisma out of the majority of pores, it is never believable that either character is not totally in love with the other one. For a good portion of the film, the two are on a rocky road to recovering their relationship. If only Colt did not find himself continuously in trouble with violent criminals as a result of his mission to locate Ryder, he would win the girl and ride off into the sunset toward a sandy beach somewhere. The further he pursues Ryder, the more Jody believes he is simply running away again.

It is a pat narrative conceit for a movie that foregrounds the romance while also peppering in a good number of quality action set pieces. The problem of tension remains, though. From moment one, there is little doubt that Jody is as head over heels for Colt as he is for her. The tension that keeps the lovers at arm’s length is manufactured by a script that desires to be propulsive, thus the two characters have little time to actually generate a realistic sense of disconnect. Not to mention that the film falls into that classic screenwriting trap in which the protagonist could solve a great majority of his problems if he just told Jody everything that was happening, but I suppose this is Colt’s primary flaw. As a result of all this, it is slightly difficult to buy into the film’s main narrative game.

On the other hand, The Fall Guy is not promising a complex emotional experience. Perhaps there is something comforting in the experience of a romance where the final destination is telegraphed from moment one. Just as an action set piece delivers a compact, self-contained sequence of events, and therein lies the joy, there may be something to be said for individual moments of buyable chemistry between two highly capable actors.

Leitch, a former stunt worker, knows his way around an action set piece. Moreover, this is his most polished film to date. Crisp camera movements and a few minorly inventive blocking ideas make for diverse and dynamic sequences that keep the film lively and enjoyable to watch. Now, if only we could have done away with all of those tiresome movie references…

The Fall Guy: B-

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As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd, Facebook)