“The Fall Guy” succeeds in being a very enjoyable picture, despite some flaws. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have great chemistry as star-crossed lovers. An homage to the under-recognized stunt men, the film has well-executed stunt sequences in the movie-within-a-movie. The straight-out action sequences are superbly choreographed.

The film begins on a movie set. Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is, and has been, the stunt double for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Colt is in love with cameraperson Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), who aspires to direct a film one day.

Tom announces to the feature’s producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) that there is too much of Colt’s face in a recent stunt shot. Colt agrees to re-do the sequence, which involves a 12-story drop down through an atrium.

Something goes wrong, and Colt is severely injured. The story cuts to a future time where Colt has recovered from the damage to his body. He has made a choice to cut himself off from Jody, as he does not want her to lose momentum in the arc of her movie career.

Colt now is a valet at a restaurant. In an amusing scene, one of many in the film, we see him take a pompous man’s car for a real spin. Of course he is fired on the spot.

Gail suddenly calls Colt and says that Jody wants him to do stunt work on her directorial debut, “Metalstorm,” now being shot in Australia. Arriving, Colt reunites with the stunt director, his old friend Dan Tucker (Winston Duke).

Colt performs a very successful cannon roll. When he takes off his helmet and is recognized by Jody, she is not happy to see him. In fact, she wants him off the set. It turns out of course that Jody never asked for Colt to come.

Later Colt is performing a fire burn stunt where, while on fire, he is hurled into a rock. Jody uses a loudspeaker to taunt him about his desertion of her. She makes him repeatedly do the same scene over and over while she gets her aggression out.

In a wonderful moment, Colt ends up sitting in a truck listening to the Taylor Swift song “All Too Well.” He tears up, only to have Jody pound on his window to ask if he has been crying. She gets into the vehicle, and they agree that he can stay on set as long as they keep their relationship professional.

Gail tells Colt later that Tom has disappeared. If Colt doesn’t retrieve him, Jody’s career as a director is threatened.

The core of the movie’s plot now appears as Colt encounters one strange event after another. There is a fast-action scene in a nightclub where Colt takes out multiple assailants after being drugged. Soon he is hallucinating unicorns while being hit by a car.

All of this leads up to Colt being led to a hotel where Tom has a room. Breaking down the door, Colt finds a dead man in a tub full of ice. Later, when the police return, there is no body there.

What is going on? Who is the dead man? Where is Tom? Is Jody’s picture doomed to failure?

I was intrigued by this picture from the beginning when the Universal logo was accompanied by the Kiss disco-era song, “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” The soundtrack is filled with moments like this when opportunely-inserted tunes by the likes of Phil Collins, the aforementioned Taylor Swift, AC/DC and The Darkness pop up.

Another positive about “The Fall Guy” is how successfully it serves as an homage to stunt men. This occurs in two ways.

The first are the stunts done as part of the movie-within-a-movie, “Metalstorm.” In these sequences we get to see how some of the stunts are performed. The thought and the safety measures behind them are clear to see.

That being said, I was surprised to see a stunt gone bad so early in the film. Not only is this a downer, but it ends up making you wonder if stunt work is really safe. While there is a revelation much later on about this accident, even that seems tacked on. Surely there would have some kind of governmental investigation on the set that would have revealed this at the time.

The second homage happens during every action scene that is not done on the set of “Metalstorm.” The seeds of stunt work have been planted in the viewer’s mind, so you cannot watch the supposedly real-world happenings without thinking of how they are staged. In fact, I was looking to see if I could detect if it was Gosling or a double.

In any case, the movie is worth watching just for these set pieces alone. They are perfectly executed and exciting.

The doses of comedy in the script also are welcome. These include being stuck with prop weapons in a fight instead of real ones. The hallucinated unicorns are an inspired touch. When Gosling and Blunt get going with their mutual infatuation, the dialogue has some nice quips.

The romance, however, gets short shrift here. It reminded me of a typical Harlequin-style novel. The plot in these works breaks up the lovers through confusion and misunderstanding that could easily be remedied if the two principals would just talk to each other instead of pouting. The negative aspects of Gosling and Blunt’s relationship just drag this film down and ruin the momentum.

The story also had a problem knowing when to end. Just when you thought it was over, another complication would arise. At over 2 hours, this became a distraction. That being said, there are some wonderful epilogue shots and early-credit surprises.

This film is all Ryan Gosling’s. He is in virtually every scene. It is impressive to see a true cinema star carry a picture single-handedly. His performance is note-perfect.

Emily Blunt is not in that much of the movie. But she has perfect chemistry with Gosling, whether they are feuding or making love. Her harried debut director is subtly rendered.

So this is a film that has its ups and downs. When it is on track, it is red-hot. When it goes slow, then things falter. More judicious editing would have benefited the picture.

Three and a half out of five stars

He’s a stuntman, and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Winston Duke, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Stephanie Hsu
Directed by: David Leitch
Screenplay by: Drew Pearce
Inspired by the hit 1980s TV series “The Fall Guy”