Ryan Gosling’s lovelorn slugger. In the undemanding action romcom Stunt, you will clear your head perfectly | Culture

Stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is a top performer in his field and regularly doubles for prima donna Tom Ryder. As a professional slugger, he is resigned to the fact that his face must not be seen in films and that the Oscar ceremony does not recognize his category.

Luckily for him, the nice cameraman Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) appreciates his wit and wit. But just when it looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Colt suffers a serious injury during filming.

He overcomes the physical effects in time, but his confidence is shaken and it looks like the stuntman is done with his craft. He is enticed to return only by the news that he could work again with Jody, who has since been promoted to director and is filming her debut in Australia – a sci-fi romance full of stunts.

Colt is persuaded by the film’s producer and arrives at the set, where, however, it turns out that something is different. Jody doesn’t know about his engagement, but a real adventurous action is expected from him to save the whole shoot. Which, of course, will eventually happen.

The director knows what he’s talking about

The credit of reasonable authenticity supplies Stuntman the fact that its director is a real ex-stuntman, and not just any – David Leitch, for example, represented Brad Pitt in Fincher’s Fight Club.

Since then, Leitch has also built a reputation as a director of action films with a sense of exaggeration, his last film was Bullet Train (with Brad Pitt), before that he made a superhero comedy, for example Deadpool 2 and participated in the action hit John Wick.

An image Stuntman it has its origin in a TV series that was broadcast in the USA in the early 80s, but its time setting and the level of the constellation of pieces performed are completely contemporary. Therefore, it does not lack, for example, sarcastic comments about the fact that today the face of any actor can be artificially put on a character.

And the conversations of the heroes from foch are full of allusions and direct references to famous films, characters and scenes that make up the current pop culture consciousness. All of this serves the director’s honor and the film mostly to its benefit.

In the same way, in this case it is clearly positive information that the main actor did not rush into the breakneck scenes alone, but gave space to the real stuntmen Ben Jenkin and Justin Eaton.

Something for everyone

Worse is what the creators have done with the plot of the film, the center of gravity of which (supposedly based on Ryan Gosling’s recommendation) has shifted significantly from action to clichéd romance. One can guess the hope behind this that the movie in cinemas will be better enjoyed by a couple in which one person prefers Jason Bourne and second Notting Hill.

Unfortunately, as a result, the story is very shallow, even by the standards of a regular genre show, and the comedic elements that should cement the romantic-action ensemble are only half as clever and funny. The popular principle of a film within a film, which here unnecessarily gives up a more plausible connection with a believable reality, only partially fulfills the raised hopes.

However, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in the main roles fulfill their tasks reliably, and the actors in other roles, such as Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the paradoxical role of the more famous Gosling’s (that is, of course, Colt’s) doppelgänger, do not disappoint either.

The most reliable component Stuntman (and it’s actually okay) there are, of course, stunts that the film does not skimp on and which are appropriately graduated in the finale. Anyone who wants to simply clear their head and fill their guts with popcorn is welcome.