Free Guy
The Truman Show meets Inception in a fresh, smart and above all very funny satire on video games.
Paradise jossed: Ryan Reynolds and Lil Rel Howery
Guy lives in Free City. He’s a glass half-full kinda guy whose catchphrase is, “don’t have a good day – have a great day!” He’s a bank teller and has become so accustomed to the armed robberies that he just lies on the floor until it’s all over. But Guy loves his life and seems oblivious to the vehicular carnage and killing all around him. After all, he’s got a lovely apartment, a loyal goldfish (‘Goldie’), a best friend called Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) and a great cup of coffee (“medium, with cream and two sugars”) waiting for him every morning at the corner shop. The only thing that bothers him is that he hasn’t got a girlfriend to share this wonderful life with. But what Guy doesn’t know is that he’s not real and that Free City is just a video game. Not only that, he isn’t even a leading character – he’s an extra, an NPC (a “non-player character” in gaming terms). Then, one day, Guy does something he’s not programmed to do – he talks to a ‘leading character’ – and then goes and orders a cappuccino. Obviously, Free City will never be the same again…
When Ryan Reynolds announces at the start, “my name is Guy and I live in Paradise,” one can feel the Jim Carrey vibe. And like Carrey’s cheerful Truman Burbank, Guy has no idea that his life is a sham. For Guy there are two types of people: the friendly, everyday people like himself and those who wear sunglasses. The latter seem to run Free City with impunity, taking what they like, killing who they like. So when, on a whim – and emboldened by the first stirrings of love – he dons the shades of a gunman robbing his bank, Guy’s world is transformed. Suddenly, through the special spectacles, Free City looks completely different.
Superficially, Shawn Levy’s smart, funny film is a satire on video game culture and it might help if one has a passing knowledge of the rules and terminology. But Free Guy is also dealing with heftier issues such as identity, perspective and the violent society in which we live – albeit with a light touch. When, at one point, a character talks of a better place, a real place beyond the programmed brutality of Free City, a world without guns, a caveat is thrown into the dialogue.
As Guy, Ryan Reynolds is predictably engaging as the world’s hottest forty-year-old virgin – his comic timing as sharp as ever. There’s also a priceless supporting turn from Taika Waititi as an eccentric megalomaniac with a dope line in the latest lingo, while Jodie Comer, ditching and adopting accents at will, makes a tough, sexy and varied romantic foil for Reynolds. The screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn is consistently inventive, and the special effects are appropriately mind-bending. Although Free City is ploughing familiar ground, its labyrinthine logic and energy level makes it feel completely fresh. Furthermore, it is neither a remake nor a sequel and Disney – which has largely kept the violence to a Tom & Jerry level – is releasing it exclusively in cinemas. So all eyes will be on the box-office this weekend.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Taika Waititi, Channing Tatum, Aaron W Reed, Britne Oldford, Camille Kostek, Matty Cardarople, Chris Evans, and the voices of Tina Fey, Hugh Jackman, John Krasinski and Dwayne Johnson.
Dir Shawn Levy, Pro Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Levy, Sarah Schechter, Greg Berlanti and Adam Kolbrenner, Screenplay Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, Ph George Richmond, Pro Des Ethan Tobman, Ed Dean Zimmerman, Music Christophe Beck, Costumes Marlene Stewart, Dialect coach Victoria Hanlin.
Berlanti Productions/21 Laps Entertainment/Maximum Effort/Lit Entertainment Group-Walt Disney.
115 mins. USA/Canada/Japan. 2020. Rel: 13 August 2021. Cert. 12A.
