Free Guy (Review)
Free Guy Balances Humor with Heart
I can’t call Free Guy “fun for the whole family,” because there are some parents out there who get a little huffy over gratuitous violence and a little crude/suggestive humor. However, I will say that Free Guy is the perfect movie for “cool parents” to see with their moody teen (Heck, you might even get a whole conversation with them out of it). Ryan Reynolds once again proves in this sci-fi comedy that his otherworldly charisma makes him one of the most dependable leading men in Hollywood. Even his dumpster-fire movies are elevated to watchable status thanks to his unwavering magnetism and humor. Luckily, Free Guy is far from a dumpster fire thanks to a clever script by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, as well as capable direction by Shawn Levy. Together, they craft a film that isn’t afraid to give audiences what they want but still manages to keep its heart.
Free Guy takes place inside the digital world of Free City, an expansive open-world video game that allows players to do whatever they want from robbery to grand theft fighter jet. What’s fun for the players is chaos for the NPCs (non-player characters), but since it’s all they know, well, they don’t know any better. The citizens of Free City simply go about their daily routines as though tanks driving over traffic were par for the course. That’s the world that Guy (Reynolds) has lived in all his artificial life until he meets the girl of his dreams, Molotov Girl AKA Millie Rusk IRL (Jodie Comer). Something clicks inside Guy and he diverges from his against his intended programming thanks to the underlying artificial intelligence used to design Free City. A.I. that was stolen from Millie by a Game Studio run by a greedy prick (Taika Waititi). Guy finds a new purpose once he learns how to “play” Free City and sets out to level up by being a good guy. As he becomes more powerful and more popular with gamers, he undertakes a quest to not only help the girl of his dreams but save his world before it’s wiped from existence.
As a connoisseur of the motion picture arts, I have a keen eye for mise-en-scène, narratology, and other fancy-sounding film theory junk. However, sometimes I just want to see cars go real fast, people punch real hard, and one-liners get real cheesy. I’m all for film as art, but escapism can be underrated, especially these days. Free Guy is filled with fistfights, gun-fu, and explosions galore! It’s able to tap-dance beyond the normal limits of suspension of disbelief because of the fantastical video-game world it exists in. The impossible is mundane within the virtual realm, so Free Guy has a lot of wiggle room to go big with the action sequences. The film also doesn’t shy away from pop or gaming culture with plenty of fanservice including cameos (Ninja, Chris Evans, and Channing Tatum to name a few) and taking full advantage of Disney-owned intellectual property. As delightfully geeky as Free Guy gets in the midst of its goofy, high-octane action, it never goes full nerd. So, even the most un-hip audience member will be able to keep up with the references.
Ryan Reynolds is oddly at his best when he’s either heartbreakingly sincere or venomously snarky. Over the course of Free Guy, he gets to do both as his character goes from rose-tinted optimist to jaded nihilist. He delivers plenty of laughs on his own but is backed up by a talented collection of comedic actors, including Utkarsh Ambudkar, Taika Waititi, and Lil Rel Howery. They’re contrasted by Joe Keery and Jodie Comer, who play the more straight-faced roles, but still get some pretty funny lines. The entire cast is charming and even the smaller characters prove memorable, which just goes to prove Konstantin Stanislavski was right. Of course, plenty of credit goes to Shawn Levy for being able to frame and capture the actors at their best. The result pushes the PG-13 rating to its limit with side-splitting results.
Despite the heavy humor and action in Free Guy, it’s a film with a lot of levels to it. At first glance, it’s a movie about breaking free from the limitations that society puts on you. Guy is an artificial intelligence that goes against his core programming in order to become more than he was intended to be. That leads down a rabbit hole of metaphysical quandaries over the nature of reality and the age-old arguments regarding artificial intelligence. That’s not taking into account the social commentary regarding the perpetual obsession with violence. Are people really desperate for that next hit of bloody mayhem or do they only think that they’re supposed to be in order to fit in these days? Free Guy never forgets that it’s meant to keep audiences entertained, but it sows pretty interesting philosophical seeds with the potential for good dinner conversation.
Free Guy succeeds thanks to its humor and sincerity. Guy comes across as naive but has a genuine desire to do good and help simply because it feels right. He is quite literally a “good” Guy. There are a few points where it stumbles, but that’s only when the underlying themes find themselves clashing with the violent and edgy intentions behind the initial creation of Free City. I might have rolled my eyes at a few of the more heartfelt speeches, but that didn’t stop me from connecting with the characters and emotionally investing in their journeys. Free Guy is a fun, feel-good movie that isn’t afraid to ask what’s wrong with just being good, and that’s a message I can get behind.
