Argylle

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Argylle follows Elly Conway, an acclaimed spy novelist who is trying to find the end of her next spy adventure. When a real life spy saves her life she becomes embroiled in the sort of adventure she once wrote about, where the stakes are high and no one is quite whom they appear to be.

 

What this movie really gets right is that early inciting incident, bringing our unsuspecting author into the high stakes world of espionage. Watching her fearfully reject the violence that has come knocking only to fall deeper into the world and become a surprisingly good partner to Aidan is quite a good foundation for the humour element of this film. In fact, watching these two bicker over how to approach or resolve a situation laid before them is probably the best part of the plot. I also really think Vaughn's classic style of positioning an irreverent fight scene with the perfect soundtrack accompaniment really stands out, particularly in the first half of the film.

 

This film looks really impressive, the cinematography highlights quick and artful fight choreography while also spotlighting the scale of this globetrotting spy adventure. It's all bold wides that maximise the space and when you get something that gets a bit artful it feels extremely considered. The score by Lorne Balfe is classic spy thriller fare, with that final fight between Elly and Aidan playing to a particularly standout theme. I also was delighted by the witty use of the soundtrack, though the more melancholy inclusion of 'Now and Then' by The Beatles was the real showstopper.

 

John Cena, who played Wyatt, was this very calm humourous performance that sold the novel scenes to me; the way Cena really came off as this sharp-witted aide to Cavill was brilliant. Bryce Dallas Howard, who played Elly Conway, had a poorly written lead role on her hands and absolutely proved a great performer can shine regardless; I loved Howard whether she came off as an anxious cat-Mum author or when she was presenting a cold-hearted master assassin. Samuel L. Jackson, who played Alfie, has an almost kindly fatherly quality to his role that imbues trust immediately; yet Jackson also entertains with funny line delivery and incredible bursts of energy when leaning into his character's excitement.

 

However, the best performance came from Sam Rockwell, who played Aidan Wilde. This is a performance that injects a bit of life into a film that was searching for it. When first we meet Rockwell he is a little rough around the edges, uncouth and even a little abrasive in his own impolite way. This is a spy who is closer to the 'real thing', he has no charm and he isn't pushing past six feet but he's still naturally the best at what he does. Watching Rockwell patiently try and goad help from Howard while steadily growing more and more irritated by her cat creates a nice starting point for their relationship. As the film carries forward we see Aidan's frustrations are actually more with Howard's Elly, that he misses the person she was to him. Watching this cantankerous spy soften into someone who just misses his love and wants to find her again definitely tugs on the heartstrings; the final confrontation between them is a big reminder of how far those two have come. Sam Rockwell is one of my favourite actors out there and it is no surprise he steals the show entirely here.

 

Nowadays, when we think of movies Matthew Vaughn has made we often consider Kingsman, but Argylle really made think of that awful sequel: Kingsman: The Golden Circle. I say this because just like Golden Circle this is a showy feature with a lot of promise but just one of the most convoluted plots you could possibly cram into an action blockbuster. I wondered for a moment if a producer had written this during the writer's strike because the dialogue is chiefly cheesy one-liners and exposition. Worse still, the film is riddled with plot twists that don't make much sense and only serve to draw out the poor pacing of this overstuffed feature. There are whole elements of fake parents, repressed identities, hypnosis/brainwashing, secret romance, a friend back from the dead, fake out death sequences and a third act betrayal that is more of a headscratcher than anything else. The film tries to do too much, often pushing itself to seem smarter than it really was. This is a film that had a good foundation for a simple premise, with a writer being pulled into the world that they have written. But the plot gets away from that, starts chasing itself a bit too much and makes the entirety of our protagonist quite hard to follow at times. This film is also a shocker for dropping story elements; the biggest one being the novel characters appearing within their own scenes. This was a major aspect of the first act and it had good roots, but the film really abandons this making it all feel sort of moot in the first place. I also felt the really over the top push for a sequel right at the end to be a bit too much; with the additional effort to link everything to the Kingsman universe an even greater upset.

Beyond the smoke hallway fight scene I often felt the special effects didn't look very convincing in this, often the CGI came off as very artificial backgrounds or came off as heavily imposed over a nice real shot. The editing in general wasn't always the most smooth, that blink imposed over camera shots was one of the ugliest qualities about the film and it was used far too often for my tastes.

Henry Cavill, who played Argylle, really has me convinced I don't want to see him as James Bond after this; Cavill is almost emotionless in his scenes and his delivery. Dua Lipa, who played Lagrange, is a very stereotypical enemy spy performance; this is a performer who is more here for name recognition than any kind of impact in her role. Ariana DeBose, who played Keira, is a character we don't really get to sit with so never have much reason to care about her; DeBose is treated like an afterthought by this film and it made her third act appearance underwhelming. Tomás Paredes, who played Carlos, is one of the most generic roles in the film and he is just in far too much of it; Paredes is a henchman character who invades every scene with no ability to make himself stand out in those scenes. Catherine O'Hara, who played Ruth, is quite forgettable in her doting mother role; yet I almost preferred that to the over the top psy-ops scientist. Bryan Cranston, who played Director Ritter, hams it up too much with the sinister factor early on and that really sets the bar for this performance going forward; when Cranston is onscreen you just expect an explosion of angry or a mean little tirade which didn't thrill in a main antagonist. Sofia Boutella, who played Saba Al-Badr, enters this film quite suddenly and doesn't really do enough to leave an impression after she is gone; Boutella is deliberately stoic and closed off but that just makes her character very unimpressionable for the brief time the audience gets to know her.

A very rare and extremely disappointing flop from Matthew Vaughn. I would give Argylle a 2/10.