Free Guy

It would be easy to be cynical about this sci-fi action-comedy, but it’s so consistently funny throughout – and surprisingly earnest and wholesome at its core – that it completely won me over.

Premise: Guy (Ryan Reynolds) lives his life as a hapless bank teller in Free City, completely unaware that he is an NPC (a non-player character) in a computer game, and that the “sunglasses people” who constantly rob his bank are actually players in the Grand Theft Auto style game. But when he stumbles across the woman of his dreams (Jodie Comer), the player known as Molotov Girl, his world changes forever, and he’s soon fighting for his very existence.

Review:

First up, it’s fair to say that this is not your average “Ryan Reynolds comedy”. I mean, yes, his trademark quips and snappily delivered dialogue are still there, but the usual sense of world-weary cynicism is missing, so his character in Free Guy isn’t sarcastic or acerbic in the same way that so many of Reynolds’ other characters are. If anything, Guy is perhaps the least cynical, and most optimistic and openhearted character that Reynolds has ever played, and it means that the film as a whole also feels earnest in a way that you perhaps wouldn’t expect from a “Ryan Reynolds comedy”.

Also, this has a 12A rating, and so it has far less bad language and a lot less violence than, say, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard which came out just a few months ago. And because Free Guy is set in a videogame world, what violence there is is very stylised and cartoonish rather than gritty or gory. The end result is that Free Guy is arguably Ryan Reynolds’ most family-friendly live action film to date.

“…it’s first & foremost a comedy, and on that front, it absolutely delivers...”

The concept behind Free Guy may feel a little familiar, but the way in which it’s executed certainly does not. The premise takes elements from The Matrix (the lead character learns that the world he lives in is not “real”), Tron (indie game creators have their work stolen by corporate suits) and even The Truman Show (viewers in the real world follow the lead character’s life for entertainment), but it finds an interesting and original way of combining them all together. This means that while Free Guy may not necessarily feel ground-breaking, it does feel quite unlike anything you’ve seen before.

But Free Guy is, first and foremost, a comedy, and on that front, it absolutely delivers. The humour is infused into every aspect of the film, whether that’s the characters themselves, some great lines, or even just background gags, like the newbie player avatars repeatedly bumping into walls behind the main characters. All that, and some great laugh-out-loud moments too, including at least two built around surprise cameos, and an extended sequence featuring the “Dude” (which I won’t spoil here).

“…Taika Waititi & Joe Keery in particular getting plenty of comedic moments to shine…”

Although this is clearly Ryan Reynolds’ film, the entire cast are great, with Taika Waititi and Joe Keery (who is arguably Stranger Things’ comedy MVP) in particular getting plenty of comedic moments to shine respectively as Antwan, the egotistical creator of the Free City game, and as Keys, the former programmer who now works in the game’s complaints team. Jodie Comer is great in the dual roles of Millie and her in-game avatar Molotov Girl, although as she’s generally playing the straight foil next to the more comedic characters, she doesn’t get as much comedy to do (although she does get plenty of action to make up for it). And as I mentioned above, there are a couple of unexpected cameos from some big names – as well as several voiceover cameos that I didn’t recognise until the end credits rolled.

And as I said from the start, Free Guy is a surprisingly earnest film, and unexpectedly (given that it is set in a videogame world that is built around acts of violence) its central messages are ones of friendship, empathy and compassion, rather than destruction. This, coupled with the fact that it is a fun and genuinely funny film, makes it just the sort of original concept, blockbuster film that it’s great to see back on the big screen.