Free Guy

"Don't have a good day, have a great day!"

About halfway through my screening of Free Guy a couple who were in their late 50s or early 60s got up and left the cinema. It would have to be a truly awful film for me to not sit through to the end which but I appreciate that is quite a divisive film that some people just won't like.

I think there's quite a generational thing going on here too as the film plays off games like Fortnite and vloggers and even at thirty years old I felt I was right on the edge of knowing what was going on. It's clear that this film is aimed squarely at Generation Z and so it's no wonder that many older people don't get a great deal out of it. 

The film follows Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who is a non-playable character in computer game "Free City" (which appears to be based on Grand Theft Auto but with a whole load of Fortnite features thrown in). He lives the same day over and over again working for the bank but when he meets player Molotov Girl he realises he could break out of routine and do things differently. In the real world Molotov Girl is Millie (Jodie Comer) who is attempting to find some code within the game that she and fellow coder Keys (Joe Keery) had stolen from game developer Antwan (Taika Waititi). 

I thought this was an unusual film in that it gets better as it goes along. It takes a little while before things really get going, before we understand what's going on with the real-world characters and before Guy finally gets to spend time with the in-game Millie. Once this happens though things gradually get more interesting and the highlight of the film is the third act and the utterly joyous ending (honestly, it's rare to have an ending which is so utterly uplifting). 

It's really great to see a new property hit the big screen which isn't totally derivative of previous films. It has a bit of a Truman Show feel about it at times and wanders into the territory of films like Her at times but on the whole it's very much it's own thing. The story is really excellent and it knows just how to treat the characters, not least Millie who is actually a decent female character whose story isn't all about the romance. 

Ryan Reynolds plays his usual character here, though he's perhaps less wise-cracking and more dumb-cracking as jokes are derived from Guy's lack of understanding of the world he is living in. Jodie Comer is the MVP here and anyone who has seen her in Killing Eve won't be greatly surprised by that. The fact she has to play Millie and in the in-game version of Millie, Molotov Girl, means she has to have the ability to convincingly play different versions of the same character complete with different accents but that's no trouble for this talented actor. Taika Waititi takes a while to appear and has a lot of fun with his role, playing the horrible idiot he is excellent at portraying. 

For me, the film's biggest weakness is it's comedy. On the whole I didn't find it laugh out funny- for the majority of the time the best reaction I could muster was a wry smile. There are some absolutely fantastic cameos in the film including excellent uses of some of the IP Disney own the right too but on the whole I felt the script needed some decent comedy writers to inject some more jokes into. 

As I mentioned, the ending is just lovely. If you look at the big blockbusters that have come out this year so far they've been pretty dark but though there's a dark social commentary in the background of this film it's pretty light-hearted and the ending gives you about five uplifting moments in quick succession- I suspect it's this really does it for many of the viewers who love this film. 

It's great to see an original and heart-warming film on the big screen but it's very much not for everyone.

See also: My brief discussion on the Marvel cameo in Free Guy