Free Guy
In all honesty, “Free Guy” should not have been as entertaining as it was. That it is has to do with the charm of Ryan Reynolds, and a script by Matt Lieberman and “Ready Player One’s” Zak Penn that isn’t afraid to just throw all sorts of crazy ideas at the wall to see which ones will stick. This is not an original premise- everything from “The Matrix” to “The Truman Show” to 2019’s “Serenity” is in its DNA- but “Night of the Museum’s” Shawn Levy does a good job of making this work.
The film begins in showing us the normal every day life of Guy (Reynolds), a banker who gets up, says hi to his goldfish, puts on a blue dress shirt and kahki pants, gets a coffee, and goes to the bank with his best friend Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), who’s a security guard. Together, they have robotic conversations that don’t change, even during a routine robbery. Wait, what? We’ll get to that. One day, Guy sees a striking young woman in sunglasses and with Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” playing, which throws her off, as well as Guy. From there, his life is completely changed, and the more he comes to know about Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer), the more he grows in experience. That will come in handy as the nature of his world will come into focus.
“Free Guy” beginning as a riff on “The Truman Show” before really getting to the high concept adventure part of the story is a big part of why the world building succeeded for me. What will become more clear to Guy is that he is a video game character- specifically, a NPC (non-playable character)- in an online video game called “Free City” put out by a megalomaniac developer named Antoine (Taika Waititi). Molotov Girl is the in-game avatar of Millie, a former game developer who has a lawsuit against Antoine, claiming he used the code for a revolutionary game her and Keys (Joe Keery) created, and Antoine bought and buried. She is in the world of “Free City” trying to look for proof to use against Antoine, but as the clock continues to the launch of the sequel game ramps up, so does the tension.
Even though I really enjoyed the setup of Guy as a mild-mannered character, it’s not until he starts to change the way he reacts to the world where Reynolds comes alive in the role. Even then, the narrative and emotional part of the story is very slight, but we do become engaged with he and Millie along the way, and the narrative in general. Levy showed an ability to work with high concept in the “Museum” films, and he makes it work here. I enjoyed the way he built this video game world, and he and Reynolds work to make Guy’s evolution believable. Comer and Kerry are the only other performances that really connect with us. (Waititi is fun, but his broad performance doesn’t work the way it did for his “Hitler” in “JoJo Rabbit.”) “Free Guy” is nothing more than a quirky and enjoyable summer adventure that wants to do something a bit different. You’re familiar with the DNA of the film, but the way it comes together will keep you entertained.
