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Elly Conway is a reclusive, bestselling author of espionage novels featuring a super spy called “Argylle” who loves staying at home. So, she doesn’t expect a simple trip to visit her mother to turn into a crazy globe-trotting chase, as a global crime syndicate dispatches killers after her over her spy novels that predict real-life events. Luckily for Elly, an undercover spy called Aidan Wilde comes to her rescue, but the more time she spends with him, the more she starts questioning everything about existence.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, who’s worked on hit titles like “Kingsman” and “Kickass” (some of my favorite action movies), my expectations for “Argylle” were pretty high, especially given the ensemble cast behind it. The movie opens with an exaggerated but entertaining spy sequence featuring Henry Cavill as the titular agent Argylle, with Dua Lipa and John Cena making brief cameo appearances. Bryce Dallas Howard is protagonist Elly Conway, the author with a vivid imagination, who is constantly rescued by Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell) from a nefarious organization chasing her for her scarily accurate novels.
After the first few minutes, “Argylle” becomes quickly boring, as it tries too hard to be stylish, smart and funny. While its obvious that the makers are self-aware of all the farcical elements of this spy-thriller-comedy, it’s just not the engrossing kind of self-awareness. “Argylle” starts off in a way that made me think it would be an amusing affair like “The Lost City”, which is also about an author landing in trouble due to her books… it isn’t.
I mean sure, “Argylle” looks great visually in many parts, but with a 2 hour runtime and a whole host of one-dimensional character played by talented actors who should’ve just said no to the script, the film feels like a lazy vanity project. You wish Elly Conway’s cat had a bigger role, at least that would’ve been funny, but even the super-cat is underutilized, unlike the catty-Flerkins in “The Marvels”.
There’s a fun unexpected twist in the last one-hour, which makes “Argylle” feel exciting for a small stretch, but then the plot soon goes back to being a snooz-y affair. Unfortunately, despite Bryce Dallas Howard being charming as a reclusive, asocial author who gets hit by a shitstorm, her character undergoes a significant change that she fails to portray accurately. Moreover, her on-screen chemistry with Sam Rockwell’s Aidan is non-existent, a crucial ingredient that could’ve improved the movie’s likability.
You can stream “Argylle” on Apple TV+
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