The Fall Guy: Ryan Gosling Goes Splat in Full Body Glory.

MOVIE INFO:

He’s a stuntman, and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?

REVIEW:

In The Fall Guy the stunts are the stars and Ryan Gosling merely the executing vessel. Gosling is Colt Seavers, the stunt man who takes a 12 story fall, breaks his back, and becomes the true “fall guy”. for a criminal coverup for a top star and his producing henchman (woman). To be honest, the plot is just a McGuffin, a pretext for some serious crash and burn, clang and bang.

The Fall Guy was Directed by David Leitch, a former stuntman himself. He knows how to direct the falls, punches, chases, flame outs, dives and impossible leaps to a shiny sheen. It’s all a slick, playful piece of puffery, with a bit of romance and lots of intrigue to pad out the runtime to a slightly overlong extra twenty minutes. It’s marginally inspired by the Lee Majors television series of the 1980’s. You really don’t pay attention to the science fiction blow out that is the frame within the frame which recycles and employs hundreds of failed fighters, race car drivers, and actors getting screen time by pretending to be killed or not killed in routine fashion for the latest Hollywood blockbuster or streaming fodder.

Leitch co-runs 87Eleven Design with fellow stuntman turned director, Chad Stahelski known solely for the John Wick series. The two have redefined American action cinema into their own likeness- bringing in mixed martial arts, witty and stunning fight choreography, and news way of seeing and using human bodies in space. Leitch delights in the physicality of the action, the logistics and rehearsal process. He often shows the body of Gosling, the action too, in full head to toe glory, the collision of chrome in total, beautiful clarity. He shows the panting and grimacing of fists and feet and they’re associated props of mayhem as they fly around in the field of view. It’s a rebuke to the over reliance on digital imagery, an ode to extolling the beauty of all practical effects, a homage and update to how films were made in the past, a call for true authenticity, a plea to the academy to recognize his chosen craft with official Oscar recognition.

Gosling taps into his inner action hero, makes blatant love to the camera, performing some of his own stunts. But to give credit to the true performers this review must acknowledge all the Gosling stunt doubles: Ben Jenkin and Justin Eaton, his driving double was Logan Holladay while his double on that nosebleed of a plummet was Troy Brown. Well done, gentlemen.