May Movies Part 1: The Idea of You & The Fall Guy

Spring has sprung and it's the perfect time to indulge in some romcoms. Depending on whether you are leaning more towards something steamy and romantic or something action-filled and comical, I've got you covered.

The Idea of You: Based on a novel by Robinne Lee, director Michael Showalter (who co-wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Westfeldt) gives us this delicious little movie about what happens when Solene (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mother of a 16-year-old, enters into a relationship with Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), a famous boy band singer who is 24. 

Is anything about this movie going to surprise you? Absolutely not (although I will say I was a little surprised and then charmed by the ending). But are these two great actors doing some great work? Absolutely. Add to that the whole boy band angle, with some very silly but perfect pop songs made for this film that perfectly capture the aesthetic, and a lot of gorgeous travel around Europe with some eye-catching locales to make this a visual feast. And not for nothing, but this show involves the Graham Norton Show, instead of featuring a standard American late-night host, and that was quite delightful. The costumes are lovely, the production design is always on point, and (spoiler alert!) when our characters get together, I immediately went "oh my god, give that intimacy coordinator a bonus!" 

This film is exactly the direction I want the romcom genre to go. A friend of mine had heard other people talking about this film and saying, "this is beneath Anne Hathaway." To which I responded, "No, she is bringing back prestige to an oft-maligned genre!" You need actresses of this caliber delivering their best performances to remind us of the beauty and charm that can be contained in a romcom. Hathaway delivers in spades and elevates this fluffy material into a cozy confection that is perfect when you need a pick-me-up.

The Fall Guy: Written by Drew Pearce (loosely based on a 1980s TV series created by Glen A. Larson) and directed by former stuntman David Leitch, this is an action romcom about what happens when Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), a veteran stuntman, is drawn into some shenanigans involving the actor he usually body doubles for and gets caught up in some dangerous mayhem. In the meantime, he is trying to appease the film's director, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), who he had a fling with a few years ago that came to an abrupt end after some failures to communicate. 

Settle in for some impeccable action and stunt work. The focus here is really on the action, so don't expect a great deal of character development, but it's very fun to watch things blow up for two hours, and watch some exquisitely choreographed stunt sequences that are sometimes very meta as they might be taking place on a fictional film set within the movie, but still serve to advance the overall plot of the film. More importantly, you will spend two hours staring at Ryan Gosling, and that is certainly no hardship.

Yes, this film is more action-heavy, but it still takes the time to throw in some delightful Gosling-Blunt banter, even involving a sequence with them debating the merits of Notting Hill and Love Actually. I would love to see these two in a more traditional romcom as they just ooze so much charisma, but I'm glad we at least have this movie to be getting on with. It's a fun thrill ride, with a great soundtrack - spoiler alert, but Ryan Gosling has never been hotter than when crying in his car to Taylor Swift's All Too Well.