★★★★
David Leitch literally packs every punch in his overstuffed but extremely likable new action comedy, The guy who falls just in time. Literally. Each. Punch. Theoretically an adaptation of Glen A. Larson’s early ’80s TV show of the same name – a short-lived success in the United States but not so much abroad – the film goes wild with the hook that the stuntmen are at both criminally overlooked and super cool. Two irrefutable truths. It benefits from the stellar unification of Ryan Gosling, now well established in his neon, no-f***s era, and Emily Blunt, together the supporting stars of last year’s two biggest blockbusters. Along with the zeitgeist casting, the existential engagement with AI and deeply false anxiety give the film a pleasing contemporary relevance, despite the perms and gold nylon tracksuits.
Gosling plays Colt Seavers, longtime understudy to Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s disheveled muscleman Tom Ryder, an action star more Channing Tatum than Tom Cruise. For its part. Ryder is a jerk and the manufactured success story of hit producer Gail Meyer – a role chewed by Hannah Waddingham – who has more than a passing air of former Sony mainstay Amy Pascal. Certainly, there’s something about Gail’s distinct manner and penchant for constantly sipping cola through a straw that rings too true to be entirely fictional. One can only imagine how many such vacuous hitmakers Leitch must have encountered during the two decades he spent as a stuntman himself before taking the helm.
To that end, Emily Blunt must surely serve as an on-screen conduit for Leitch. She plays Jody Moreno, a competent camera operator at the start of the film and first-time director in flesh and substance. Jody was once Colt’s girlfriend. That was before the accident: a grueling blow that shook the industry and went wrong. Eighteen months later, a less polished Colt abandoned Jody and his career, living his worst life as an undervalued valet.
It’s Gail who brings Colt back into the business. Ryder has gone crazy, and Jody’s first film – a dismal sci-fi epic called “Metalstorm” – is on the verge of collapse. As it happens, it’s quickly revealed that there’s more to Ryder’s disappearance than meets the eye. Enabled is a narrative largely based around Gosling being shipped from set to set and shamelessly dumping an entire toybox of VFX effects. One oddity here is, of course, the film’s reliance on real stuntmen to perform the wild and extravagant stunts on display – the production broke a world record for car spins during filming. The mid-credits sequences showcase their work, without going so far as to highlight their overall vitality. Acclaim for stunts has long disappeared from awards season. The talent remains unknown but super cool.
Essentially, the plot is a secondary concern here, little more than a framework for fisticuffs, car chases, and budget-intensive pyrotechnics. All the features of the best action games. It’s terrific fun and unashamed in its gimmicks. Every scene is doused in ladles of industrial metatextuality, any sense of self-importance negated by the infectious enthusiasm of everyone involved. A collection of cast and crew dedicated to the art of the blockbuster. Given the film-within-a-film concept of “Metalstorm,” The guy who falls just in time delights in every opportunity to reflect the chaos behind the camera, from exposing subtle hierarchies. Watch for the terrific scene in which Jody finds catharsis by setting Colt on fire and throwing Colt four times, all in the supposed attempt to pull off the perfect plan.
Of course, none of this would work if Gosling and Blunt weren’t so inherently watchable. The alchemy is dynamite, the repartee delicious. Perhaps the film surrounding them could be a little lighter, a little shorter even, but it’s never for lack of the frenetic energy and thrill of the game itself.
T.S.