We’re clearly living in a golden age of silly Gosling. For much of Ryan Gosling‘s ascension as a movie star, he specialized in Brando-esque brooding in movies like Drive and The Place Beyond the Pines, so it was always a nice change of pace when the Canadian heartthrob let loose in films like Shane Black’s (underrated) The Nice Guys. But on the heels of his himbo-icon turn as Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie this summer, Gosling appears to be leaning hard into the goofy. Based on the first trailer, which dropped this morning, The Fall Guy will be another showcase for that irresistible Gosling charm. And boy, are we ready for it.
Directed by Bullet Train’s David Leitch and based (pretty loosely, it looks like) on the 1970s Lee Majors TV series, The Fall Guy stars Gosling as Colt, a stuntman working on a movie directed by his ex, Jody, played by Emily Blunt. They had a fling before he ghosted, apparently to grow his hair long and prune a bonsai; oodles of sexual tension remain. But this is no simple rom-com. When the star of Jody’s movie, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), disappears, Colt is dispatched to find him. There are dead men in bathtubs and bad dudes involved. Fights ensue.
There’s clearly a lot going on in this movie, which among other things looks to be an ode to stunt performance from Leitch (a former stuntman who doubled for the likes of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon) and a showcase for the director’s fight-choreography skills. The set pieces look huge—watch for Gosling jumping onto a helicopter from an enormous jib arm. There’s likely to be a good amount of Hollywood inside-baseball humor as well; casting a Marvel-ripped Taylor-Johnson as the “biggest action star on the planet” has to be a wink at AT-J’s rumored “next James Bond” status as well as his now-delayed turn as Kraven the Hunter.
But mostly we’re just excited for more of Gosling in this mode. The man can do many things, but he’s a true delight when he’s giving us masculine insecurity and pratfalls. Oh, and also, there’s a cute dog in this! That’s a bonus. The Fall Guy arrives in theaters March 1.