Argylle Review: An Uninspired and Overlong Outing, Despite an Impressive Ensemble
Matthew Vaughn's spy story is a subdued version of his more ambitious efforts.
If you've been to any major cinema in the last four months, you've likely been assaulted by the trailer for Argylle. The preview touts that it comes from the "twisted mind" of filmmaker Matthew Vaughn, with the footage featuring a gaudy aesthetic, furious action, and a bevy of beloved faces. While his earlier films, like X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, and Kingsman: The Secret Service, were praised for their pop-art sensibilities, his more recent directorial efforts (two Kingsman sequels) drew criticism for emphasizing redundant stylistic choices over venturing into any new territory. With Argylle, Vaughn continues to dabble in the realm of the spy thriller, which is filled with half-cooked characters and convoluted narrative threads. There are moments of joy in the final act, though it takes nearly two hours to get to any of the familiar fun that he has delivered more effectively in previous outings.
Author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) has finished her latest book about the covert adventures of superspy Argylle (Henry Cavill), though struggles with the book's ending. Hoping to clear her mind for a creative retreat, she is intercepted by Aidan (Sam Rockwell), who alerts her to the fact that her stories all have an eerie way of reflecting real-world operations, as he aims to rescue her from the evil organization run by Ritter (Bryan Cranston), who thinks she's gotten too close to the truth. Elly and Aidan have to uncover the truth of a deadly mission while also exploring how she could know the most secretive of details about deadly assignments.
While the trailer for Argylle endorsed the experience as coming from Vaughn's twisted mind, this marks only his eighth directorial effort in 20 years. Still, while his output might not be as prolific as other filmmakers, the Kingsman franchise has largely earned him a reputation for break-neck and physics-defying action, colorful cinematography, and frenetic pacing. With films like Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, these cinematic techniques felt bold, daring, and ambitious, but a decade later, he still seems to struggle with the same bag of tricks. His Kingsman series specifically comes with abrasive characters and brutal choreography, almost daring the audience to engage with such controversial material. Argylle, however, marks his first PG-13 effort since X-Men, which undercuts the impact of a majority of the action scenes. We're not looking for violence and gore just for the sake of the visceral thrill, but with last year delivering action powerhouses in the R-rated John Wick: Chapter 4 and the PG-13-rated Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, viewers have been spoiled with what can be accomplished in the action realm, leaving Argylle to feel like it was censored for a broadcast on network TV. In this regard, it does feel like it could be a good gateway into Vaughn's work for younger audiences, as it is one of his tamest and most accessible films.
This isn't to say that there isn't fun to be had, as Rockwell's Aidan barely stumbling through a fight makes for an entertaining juxtaposition to how the fictional Argylle and his ally Wyatt (John Cena) deftly dispatch any adversary with brute force. The film's final act has two show-stopping sequences that deliver all the madcap glee and mayhem fans have come to expect from Vaughn's work, including familiar plumes of colorful smoke. The problem, though, is just how lifeless the journey was to get to these exciting moments.
In addition to the aforementioned stars, Argylle also features Samuel L. Jackson, Catherine O'Hara, Dua Lipa, Sofia Boutella, and Ariana DeBose. We might still be early into the year, but Argylle delivers one of the most exciting ensembles of performers of 2024 (so far). Despite the seemingly limitless potential of the movie's stars, every single one of them feels like they are appearing merely as a favor to Vaughn as opposed to having any vested interest in the journey. Rather than casting performers to play characters, we're instead seeing what it would be like for the real Bryce Dallas Howard to be thrown into a spy adventure led by the real Sam Rockwell and encounter the real Samuel L. Jackson. None of the figures in the story feel like actual, layered characters and more like avatars merely trying to move the story along. Admittedly, watching Rockwell try to teach Howard how to stomp an enemy's skull with her foot or Cavill be a charming assassin or Cranston be a commanding and cantankerous voice of authority makes for a somewhat entertaining experience, but we've all seen every actor deliver the same role in much better films.
With a run time of two hours and 19 minutes, audiences will spend the first two acts of Argylle wishing they were watching these typically charming actors delivering much more engaging performances in more fulfilling storylines. Much of the comedy lands flatly, as the humor is mainly an uninspired version of "this citizen is in over their head" that we've seen countless times in this genre. Elly and Aidan hunt for a MacGuffin, encounter bad guys, and banter without much urgency or without much at stake, due in large part to the contrived nature of the premise. By the time we get to the reveal of how Elly could know so much about the world of spies, it's not necessarily an un-clever reveal, but it's one that entirely changes the dynamic of the movie in a way that would have been more fulfilling much earlier on.
Surprisingly, Argylle does make good on boasting that it came from a twisted mind, though this is more a reflection on the overall narrative and its many twists and turns, which burgeoning cinephiles will likely appreciate more than those well-versed in the genre. All the various loose threads of the film's winding journey mostly pay off from a story standpoint, we just wish some of the more bloated scenes and sequences could have been trimmed and the characters could have been a bit more inventive to make that journey far more enjoyable. With Argylle, Vaughn delivers something that will feel quite familiar to his previous efforts, yet its PG-13 tone and embrace of CGI make for a toothless experience that can't quite be salvaged even by this impressive cast. There are glimpses of genuine glee, but they are too few and far between to salvage the experience as a whole.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Argylle lands in theaters on February 2nd.
