‘Argylle’: Review

Dir: Matthew Vaughan. UK/US. 2024. 139mins

As intricate and layered as its name might suggest, Matthew Vaughn’s star-studded crime caper throws viewers round a succession of plot twists but never really knits together in a satisfying whole. This tale of a bestselling spy novelist who finds herself embroiled in real life espionage has some fun moments, an impressive cast and explosive set pieces (not to mention some strong echoes of classic eighties adventure series Romancing The Stone) but, in its attempts to keep audiences guessing, ties itself up in knots.

Bombastic visuals

That is unlikely to deter audiences when Argylle hits cinemas worldwide on February 2 (through Universal), before heading to Apple TV+. This collaboration between Apple and Vaughn’s production outfit Marv follows last year’s Tetris: The Movie,  and Vaughn has already said that he sees the film as being part of the wider Kingsman universe. It is clearly being set up as a franchise in its own right, with a prequel hinted at during a mid-credits sequence. Merchandising opportunities are also blatant.

The film has long been positioned as an adaptation of the book by debut novelist Elly Conway, of whom little is known, but the truth may be a little more meta. A vividly-colourful opening sequence in Greece sets the scene, as slick international super spy Argylle (Henry Cavill) engages in a Bourne-style chase across rooftops and along winding streets in an attempt to capture criminal Lagrange (pop star Dua Lipa). Yet after Argylle and his wise-cracking sidekick Wyatt (John Cena) finally get their girl, Vaughn and screenwriter Jason Fuchs cut to reveal that the scene is, in fact, being written by author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the safety of her home office. 

Elly is working on her fifth Argylle novel (struggling with the ending, in fact) and the hugely popular series has made her an international star; her office festooned with action figures and posters, her book readings packed with fans. Yet her isolated upstate New York home, in which she lives alone with her cute, expressive cat Alfie, hints at a more reclusive character.

Her two worlds collide when she meets real-life secret agent Aidan (Sam Rockwell), who asserts that he is protecting her from a real-world crime syndicate which feels the plots of her books have become too close for comfort. After Aidan and Elly escape a train festooned with would-be-assassins, they embark on a global journey to expose the syndicate and its nefarious activities — with Alfie coming along for the ride in a specially customised (and covetable) ‘catpack’. 

The rest of the plot involves major spoilers, but suffice to say that the film leans heavily on the traditions of the genre — crosses and double-crosses, questions of identity and trust — to weave a convoluted story that builds towards a big denouement. For all its attempts at wrong-footing and surprise, however, many viewers will undoubtedly twig what is going on long before they are expected to. Vaughn is not a director known for subtlety and cannot resist leaving boulder-sized breadcrumbs.

Still, subtlety is not the name of the game in this big, showy action vehicle. At its head, Bryce Dallas Howard is charmingly down-to-earth as the mild-mannered yet insecure Elly, who slowly begins to find her self-confidence as she is forced to live a life outside of her books. She has a nice chemistry with Rockwell, watchable as ever as the wise-cracking Aidan who handles these extreme (and increasingly outlandish) situations with skill and wit, even if he doesn’t have the unflappable smoothness of the fictional Argylle.

This dichotomy between the real and the imagined is the most interesting part of the film, as it plays on the relationship between art and creator that can blur psychological lines. Yet Argylle is not so much interested in mining that potentially rich seam, rather creating a bombastic visual feast, filmed with immersive fluidity by DoP George Richmond, and ticking all the requisite genre boxes: locations, fast-paced editing, expertly choreographed set pieces, death-defying stunts and extensive VFX. Like Agent Argylle himself, it very much looks the part but, underneath all that attractive design, offers nothing particularly new.