Stunted story hobbles rom-com

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, who were on opposite sides of last summer’s Barbenheimer phenom, get together for this action-fuelled rom-com, and their natural, easy, funny back-and-forth is the best thing going in this good-natured but oddly underachieving flick.

Gosling brings tons of low-key, self-deprecating, “just-Ken” charm. Blunt matches him with her screen charisma and smart comic timing,

Gosling plays Colt Seavers, a stuntman who often doubles for Tom Ryder (Bullet Train’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a massive global action star who brags about doing all his own stunts — even though he doesn’t. (Feel free to speculate here on real-life inspirations.)

Colt is in an on-set romance with up-and-coming filmmaker Jody Moreno (Blunt), but their relationship is interrupted by an accident, followed by some unfortunate miscommunication and mistiming.

Eighteen months later, Colt jumps at a chance to work on Jody’s new film, a big, dumb sci-fi blockbuster. (“It’s High Noon at the edge of the universe.”)

When Ryder, who’s playing the space cowboy hero, goes missing, the movie’s high-powered producer, Gail Meyer (Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham), tasks Colt with bringing him back.

Colt hopes that by saving the film, he can salvage his relationship with Jody.

Very loosely based on the ‘80s TV series of the same name, The Fall Guy starts with a catchy premise but suffers from patchy execution. Scripter Drew Pearce, who’s worked on The Fast and the Furious and Mission: Impossible franchises, is trying for an antic, madcap vibe, but falls down on really basic plot mechanics. Direction by David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Bullet Train) is enthusiastic but confused.

There’s a lot of movie-within-a-movie stuff, giving us a closer look at stunts and the crews that pull them off. Pearce wants to convey the camaraderie and commitment of cinema’s behind-the-scenes people, cut with a bit of sharper showbiz satire, but he throws a lot into the mix without really following up. It would have been nice to see more of the minor characters, for instance, such as Dan Tucker (Black Panther’s Winston Duke), an affable stunt co-ordinator who talks almost entirely in film quotations.

Likewise, Jody and Colt’s relationship works because of the talented leads, with The Fall Guy continuing to make a good case for Gosling as the contemporary rom-com’s best leading man. (Colt has abs you could break bricks on and cries while listening to Taylor Swift.) But their love story could use a little more room to breathe.

The other love story in The Fall Guy does better. This is the grand romance expressed through cars rolling over, boats jumping through flames, men crashing through glass and falling off roofs. Director Leitch is a former stuntman, and The Fall Guy is clearly an affectionate ode to Hollywood’s often overlooked stunt performers.

There’s a brief but pointed bit of dialogue in the film about the fact there are currently no Oscar awards for stunt work or stunt choreography.

As Colt tells us, if a stuntperson is doing their job right, you don’t know they’re there. So watching superstar Ryan Gosling getting beat up, set on fire or pushed out of a helicopter is a good way of drawing attention to stunt performers’ hidden labour.

Well, actually, it would be one of Gosling’s four stunt doubles doing that work, but you get the point.

alison.gillmor@winnipegfreepress.com