‘The Stunt Driver’ Is a Heartwarming Tale of a Mad Canadian
Jay Baruchel gives an impressive performance as a man at odds with his dangerous ambition.
I first saw Jay Baruchel when he was the charming lead on the funny, short-lived sitcom Undeclared. His sweet, unassuming nature made him an affable performer, and while he also knows how to play against that type in films like Knocked Up and Goon, it also serves him well as a heroic lead in movies like This Is the End and voicing the young Viking Hiccup in the animated How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. He continues to grow and show his range as an actor in the new biopic The Stunt Driver. Reteaming Baruchel with his Goon director Michael Dowse, the movie feels like the perfect blend of Baruchel’s personas, combining a pleasant, polite Canadian with a rough-and-tumble stuntman who says things like “Books are for nerds.” It all makes for a memorable turn not only from Baruchel, but also a surprisingly emotional story about living dangerously.
Based on the life of Canadian stuntman Ken Carter (Baruchel) and the 1981 documentary The Devil at Your Heels, the movie follows Carter as he attempts to drive a rocket car a mile over the Saint-Laurent River off a 90-foot-high ramp. To aid in his wild quest, he brings in engineer Dick Keller (Ed Helms), whose primary goal is to make sure Ken doesn’t get himself killed doing this crazy stunt. Ken feels he has to do it, not only because of the size of the stunt, but so he can outshine his American competitor, Evel Knievel (Ben Foster), whom Carter refers to as a “nerd.” However, as the years drag on and the costs mount, the daunting nature of the jump looms larger in Ken’s mind.
Although it exists in the frame of a biopic, The Stunt Driver also has plenty of comedy as well as a fair helping of psychological drama. There are practical obstacles like building the rocket car and the ramp, but Dowse leans into what it means for this man to be afraid when his job requires him to negate fear. While other people also have scary jobs that endanger their lives, they’re typically risking their safety out of a sense of duty and desire to protect others. For Ken, the question is more complicated, and his vacillation is distinctly human and understandably infuriating to those around him, like his partner Gloria (Laurence Leboeuf) and money man Bill Wilkins (Dan Bakkedahl). No one is forcing him to jump, but the act raises the question of how safe something like this can be. Ken prides himself on being a stunt driver rather than a daredevil because he wants the stunt to land, not to carelessly risk his life.
That’s why Baruchel’s performance is so essential to making the piece work. You need someone who has a reasonable, everyman quality—the voice of sanity that his characters bring in movies like This Is the End and Tropic Thunder—but the rambunctiousness that we’d believe he’d go ahead with this stunt in the first place. When you say, “stunt man,” Baruchel isn’t the first person you think of, but that helps carve Ken out as a singular figure. He has a unique combination of bravado and humility, talking fast and always with an answer to everything, but never with any malice in his heart, even when he’s insulting Evel Knievel. In some ways, he feels like a cousin to Goon’s Doug Glatt—someone who is kind and big-hearted and would also beat the crap out of you in a way that’s kind of childish and innocent. It’s a strange character whose anger carries no hatred, but it also keeps Ken endearing even at his most frustrating.
I also appreciate Dowse’s decision to blend “documentary” footage with the reality of the scene. It feels like Dowse’s way of acknowledging that he wasn’t the first one to tell this story, and to honor the work of the documentarians who were with Ken at the time of trying to make his jump. It also creates a nice sense of reflection as Ken is performing for the documentary crew, but they’re also close enough to see the real man and all his foibles. It helps emphasize the movie’s larger theme that what’s brave isn’t making a daredevil leap but allowing others to see how scared you are. When Ken is challenged on why he won’t go ahead with the jump on a particular day with “Are you scared?” he yells back, “Of course I’m fucking scared!” and the movie earns that moment.
The Stunt Driver is one of those movies that feels bound to get lost because no part of it is “big” enough to command space in a crowded entertainment environment. It’s not built for an awards run, Baruchel isn’t a household name even though he’s starred in hit movies, and it’s about a Canadian figure who’s likely unknown to a wide swath of audiences. But it would be a shame to miss this one because it’s so lovely, funny, and big-hearted. Like Ken Carter, this is a movie from underrated figures who know what they’re doing, and it feels like they’ve done right by the stunt driver’s legacy. The film understands that what’s spectacular about a stunt performer isn’t when he takes off at the end of the ramp, but when he decides to get into the car.
The Stunt Driver opens in theaters on September 25.
In case you missed it, I sent out three reviews yesterday, which you can find below:
Matt Goldberg
Matt Goldberg
Matt Goldberg
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