The Fall Guy

A strange viewing experience. The leads are likable, the script shows that it has something on its mind, the action is good (though it does occasionally lag)—what’s the problem? That’s what makes it so strange: I don’t really know. But something is missing here. The issue may lie in the fact that this movie is in love with movies, and if you personally are not so enamored, the film’s enthusiasm may fall flat for you (pun vaguely intended). Perhaps there’s also a lack of any sense of true stakes; the core drama lies in whether or not Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling will make it up with each other--and frankly, few of us can really burn a lot of calories worrying about whether or not impossibly pretty people will be able to work out their love lives. The movie is, overall, not deserving of a HISS; there are too many good moments within its running time for it to get less than a middling MEOW. But it is, most emphatically, less than what it could have been. Less an awe inspiring stunt, more of a pratfall.