DAD BROMANCE
When Total Film usually chats to Ryan Reynolds, he’s a fizzing, fast-talking quipster, rolling out caustic one-liners as deftly as Deadpool. But today when we catch up with him in a dark, wood-panelled hotel room, he’s introspective, heart-on-sleeve and disarmingly open; talking in an uncharacteristically quiet cadence about the difficult relationship he had with his dad (who died in 2020) and a vulnerable, withdrawn pre-teen version of himself. It’s not that Reynolds can’t be serious and circumspect – we’ve seen him essay both in roles such as Buried and Mississippi Grind – but in his most high-profile outings and his business persona as gregarious football club/gin/mobile phone network owner, Reynolds’ default is ‘funny’.
The reason for his contemplation is perhaps his most personal film to date; a re-team with director/ producer Shawn Levy on another warm audience-pleaser after their success with 2021’s . The kind of film Reynolds describes as “a high-concept, wish-fulfilment film, not unlike the Amblin movies that I loved growing up”. Levy and he leaned into that nostalgia and sweetness with ($331.5m at the box office and; ostensibly a timetravel jape that dips into themes of grief, forgiveness, destiny and trauma.
