Irrepressibly upbeat Gosling-Blunt action rom-com is depressingly flawed

Despite spectacular stunts and romantic fireworks, the Aussie-filmed The Fall Guy is flawed, writes Leigh Paatsch.

THE FALL GUY (M)

Director: David Leitch (Atomic Blonde)

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham.

Rating: **1/2

Always taking a tumble, rarely getting up

Come along for the stunts. They are genuinely spectacular.

Stick around for the romantic fireworks. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are a movie match made in box-office heaven.

Fight the urge to leave whenever the story takes over. Too much is going on. Too little of it matters. Some of it truly annoys.

That’s your three-part takeaway from The Fall Guy, an irrepressibly upbeat, yet depressingly flawed action rom-com that never gets quite as good as you truly hope it will be.

As for viewers of a certain age with a fond recall of the 1980s TV series, they shouldn’t be getting their hopes up too much either.

All that has been extracted from the source material is the lead character’s name, and his occupation.

Ryan Gosling as likeable, laid-back loose-cannon Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy.

So say hello to Colt Seavers, veteran movie stuntman. As played by Ryan Gosling, he is a likeable, laid-back loose-cannon who doubles the dangerous stuff on-screen for the world’s most popular action star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

After sustaining an aerially-inflicted injury that almost ices his career, Colt gets a chance to reclaim his hotshot status on Ryder’s latest project.

The futuristic thriller MetalStorm is shooting in Sydney, chock-full of the kind of death-defying duties (setting one’s self on fire, rolling vehicles at high speed, breaking lots of glass, etc) that Colt could normally do with his eyes closed.

However, there are two significant wrinkles to this seemingly smooth gig that could distract him.

Emily Blunt as Judy Moreno.

Firstly, this multimillion-dollar blockbuster is being directed by Jody (Emily Blunt), the ex-love of Colt’s life that he still holds a torch for.

Secondly, Tom Ryder has gone missing at a crucial phase of the shoot, and at the behest of MetalStorm’s gung-ho producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham), Colt must brave the wilds of inner-city Sydney to find him.

A very clunky and totally nonsensical crime subplot – which admittedly will occasionally trigger a ripping, high-octane stunt sequence – starts chewing up long stretches of The Fall Guy, and a lot of love many might have for the production leaves the room.

Possibly never to return.

However, if it does, it will only be when Colt and Jody’s romance is nudged to the foreground. The Gosling-Blunt screen sizzle is an irresistible force one can only hope will be experienced again in other, better movies.

The Fall Guy is in cinemas now

ABIGAIL (MA15+)

Rating: ***

General release

Alisha Weir in Abigail.

While it is doubtful Abigail will be landing on many end-of-year lists as the best horror movie of 2024, there is every likelihood it will be remembered as the most fun. From what shapes as a premise of limited potential, the production leaps into an unpredictable realm where viewers will be both kept on their toes and decidedly amused right through to the splatter-tastic end.

A tightly structured opening act embeds us amid a gang of rookie kidnappers awaiting their first big payday. Having abducted the meek and mild 12-year-old daughter (Alisha Weir from Matilda: The Musical) of a mobster just after she has finished ballet practice, all that these colourful crooks have to do is spend the night supervising the child, and an eight-figure ransom will be theirs to split. The task is not as simple as it should be, and not just because these would-be criminals are not the brightest light bulbs in the box.

Abigail has a behavioural issue or two.

Without giving too much away, Abigail has a behavioural issue or two that would get the better of the best babysitters in the business. So when the little lady (still in her tutu) informs her captors that she’s feels sorry for what is going to happen to them, believe every word the kid is saying. And perhaps get ready to cover your eyes.

Co-stars Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Giancarlo Esposito.

THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE (M)

Rating: ****

Selected cinemas

Judith Kaufmann in The Teacher's Lounge.

This cleverly nuanced whodunit from Germany recently landed a Best International Film Oscar nomination in what proved to be a hot line-up for that category. In some ways, it was most unlucky to lose, as the acting and direction on display here borders on the masterful.

Clocking in at an appreciably taut 90 minutes, the mystery at the throbbing heart of the movie centres on a spate of thefts occurring in a suburban high school. Multiple fingers of suspicion are pointed at a boy who is the son of Turkish immigrants. Convinced a clear-cut case of racial profiling is unfolding before her, a novice instructor, Carla (Leonie Benesch of Netflix’s The Crown), moves to establish the lad’s innocence. In doing so, Carla opens a can of worms that begins to swarm the entire school, pitting students, teachers and parents alike in a complex tug of war from which there will almost certainly be no victor.

This is no easy watch – the multiple tensions at work here see to that – but you won’t be forgetting any of it in a hurry.

Originally published as Irrepressibly upbeat Gosling-Blunt action rom-com is depressingly flawed