Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the go-to stunt guy for huge Hollywood megastar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), one of those vacuous, insecure types. But that's all right, because at the same time Colt is dating beautiful camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt); He's doing what he loves, working alongside someone he's starting to suspect he loves - until a crane mishap gives him a minor injury and a severe case of self-doubt and depression. In a deep funk, he drops off the map for a year and a half, ghosting Jody in the process.
That funk ends when a producer (Hannah Waddingham) calls him out of the blue, saying Jody is getting a shot at directing a huge sci fi vehicle with Ryder in the main role, and asked for Colt by name. So Colt goes over to Australia, shoots a car chase that ends in a pretty sweet cannon roll (which, incidentally, got the Guinness world record for most spins in real life) and starts reconnecting with Jody in a pretty funny scene where Jody makes him explain himself very very publicly. As in, with megaphones. Suddenly, all's good in the world. The twist: Jody very much did not ask for him by name.
But there's more. Ryder's missing in action, and when Colt goes out looking for him at the producer's request, he finds a corpse in an ice-filled bathtub. Shortly afterwards he's getting chased around by beefy PMC-types all over Sydney in a plot that gets sillier and dumber by the second, all the way to a contrived and, frankly, pretty fucking stupid final gambit; But that's ok, because the film has an infectious sense of fun... and more importantly, it gives director David Leitch and stunt designer Chris O'Hara free reign to come up with all sorts of the sort of craziness studio 87North shines at, this time with an emphasis on vehicular and falling stunts (though there are some really good fights in there too). Just to be clear, the movie earns essential status just based on the stuntwork. It's truly amazing.
The script... the script (by Drew Pearce) is all right. It's big, loud and dumb by design, and even its (shockingly frequent) clever conceits, like a discussion on split screen that takes place in split screen where Colt and Jody talk around the way they split, are a bit too self-satisfied. Same problem as Bullet train, except that here a lot (not all) of the jokes work; and that makes all the difference. That split screen scene, for example, is immaculately executed, and it gets some big laughs because Jody is testing out some of the costumes at the time; so for a lot of the conversation, she's naturalistically gesturing with a giant alien hand. By the time she ends up leaning her chin on it pensively... I haven't laughed so much in a long time.
It really does try to shine a spotlight on the world of stunt workers, with a pleasing emphasis on technical details (like the impact of the density of the sand on a beachside car chase) as well as on the eye-popping stunts themselves. If you want to be mean, it also feels like they're taking some pot shots at a certain actor who shares Tom Ryder's name and puts undue emphasis on doing his own stunts. There's a lot of fun references to a ton of other stunt-heavy movies, direct and indirect - I laughed when someone produces a Miami Vice stunt team jacket and then gets involved in a motorboat chase at Sydney Harbour. Of course they jump over a huge explosion. My favorite, though, has got to be a surprisingly high-profile nod to a forgotten 1983 trashy sci fi movie.
On the whole it's a mixed bag, but I mostly lean positive because enough of the jokes work, and also because it's... well, cute. It's a cute movie. What with its central romance - one that has very little passion (seriously, when are we going to get love stories that feel like they aren't made for thirteen year-olds?) but one in which the stars share a huge amount of chemistry. What with its earnest reverence for stunt work in all shapes and forms. Despite a lot of cruft and artifice, it feels sincere.
Also, I respect that they don't do that stupid, formulaic romantic comedy thing where they pretend that the couple has any real difficulties in their reconciliation. And I really do like the reason Colt gives for ghosting Jody - Yes, it's an easily avoidable mistake, but it feels real and relatable in ways a more convoluted explanation wouldn't.
I know I've already done my share of complaining, but if you'll indulge me, let me whinge a little more: The movie-within-the-movie Jodie is making looks like flaming garbage - when they show a trailer for it, it reminded me of an even lamer version of that Zak Snyder Star Wars thing. Wouldn't it be cooler if it looked like, well, something you'd actually want to see? It's far from the only instance in which they let comedy get in the way of good story choices or actual coolness. For example, making Tom Ryder a complete clown - wouldn't the movie be more interesting if the guy actually had some chops? He'e enough of a buffoon off-screen.
A lot of the scenes drag on for a little too long, too; The film's only two hours long, and to be honest that's a good duration for the amount of stuff that's crammed in there... but it still feels a little bloated. This should be a lot breezier than it is, especially towards the end.
And fuck the fact that they explain away the initial accident that drives Colt away from being a stunt man. That's the worst kind of stupid and manipulative script decision.
Don't have any complaints about the action. Maybe that they make a lot of fuss about doing an early brawl as a oner, and then when you see it it's all chopped-up and kind of messy? The rest of the movie more than makes up for it.
The acting is excellent all around. I sometimes miss Gosling's serious side, but he's a very gifted comedian. Blunt gets the thankless role of being the straight man person, but she gets some good lines and gags in, and is basically adorable. I didn't know Hannah Waddingham (turns out she's mostly done TV) but she rehabilitates some really clunky lines and makes them funny. And in what seems to be becoming a sort of studio 87North's trademark, there's a very good boy in there too. A very good boy indeed.
On the visual front, cinematographer Jonathan Sela captures the action well, but that's about it. It's not a particularly atmospheric movie. The music is fine, too, with several fun classic rock needle drops - no Journey, though.
That actually brings me to an interesting point - there's a lot that's missing in the movie from the trailers. I'm actually more than OK with that, because based on them this just looked like an unfunnier Bullet Train (I went into the theater kind of expecting to hate this based on its marketing). But most of the terrible, terrible jokes from the trailer are nowhere to be found in the finished product. I do think Any Way You Want It would have fit the film's silly, generous, overindulgent ethos to a T, though.
