Argylle Review

Argylle sees Matthew Vaughn move away from the Kingsman series to start another potential spy franchise. This time he’s armed with an ensemble cast and a reported $200 million budget.

Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the author of the Argylle series, a popular series of spy novels. She’s an unassuming woman who lives alone with her cat, Alfie. However, when Elly travels to Chicago she meets a real spy, Aidan (Sam Rockwell) who tells the author her books are true and she is being hunted by an organisation called The Division. Elly is forced into a real-life spy adventure, which sees her travel to London, France, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Argylle is the third film made by Apple to be released in cinemas, the previous being Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon. Apple has shown ambition by letting directors make their passion projects, but the financial results have been poor. Killers of the Flower Moon was critically praised, but it was a hard sale because of its long runtime, and Napoleon had a more mixed reception. Argylle was a high-risk film because of the meta premise and massive budget, and it received the worst reviews for an Apple cinematic film.

Matthew Vaughn is a man who has made some great films: his filmography contents Layer Cake, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, and Kingsman: The Secret Service. His films are filled with visual flair because of the bright colours and fantasy transitions. Many looked like comic books, which is fitting considering many are based on comic books. Vaughn has become known for deconstructing genres as he did with the superhero genre (Kick-Ass) and spy-thrillers (Kingsman: The Secret Service).

Argylle fits into his deconstructive mould since it was a meta-spy film that played on tropes of the genre. There was a mix of James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Mission: Impossible and a certain action-thriller from 1996. Yet with Argylle Vaughn felt like he repeating himself. Kingsman: The Secret Service was filled with references to the Bond series and other spy franchises and showed how a working-class man became a superspy. Vaughn has a distinct visual style, which made Argylle look like the Kingsman films, just with less violence. Elly was writing outrageous spy stories and she ended up in one. It wasn’t like The Last Action Hero where there was a ridiculous, over-the-top movie world and a grim and gritty real world. The story of the Argylle was reminiscent of the Sandra Bullock rom-com/action-comedy The Lost City where a popular author ends up in a real adventure.

Vaughn’s reputation has fallen in recent years. He has become a director with little restraint. It’s the trap directors like Zack Snyder, Neill Blomkamp, and Michael Bay have fallen into. Vaughn was at his worst when he made Kingsman: The Golden Circle since he made a film where he threw every idea he had and had chaotic, incomprehensible action sequences. The King’s Man had the ill-judged post-credit scene where Hitler and Lenin planned to co-ordinate a Second Great War. Vaughn’s free reign was on display due to the action sequence, especially during the end of the film which used a lot of CGI trickery, the flashy transitions, and casting actors against type. Argylle was a film that had so many plot twists that it ended up breaking the logic of its story.

Vaughn shows he can still make solid action sequences. The first action sequence started like a Bond scene, then turned into a Mission: Impossible team effort and evolved into Bad Boys II. The action on the train brought back memories of Bullet Train and the sequence with the colourful smoke bombs felt like it could have fitted in Kingsman: The Secret Service. However, the ice-skating sequence was ropey and Vaughn was too fond of playing pop songs during the action sequences. Vaughn was trying to emulate James Gunn’s work, but I thought of this cutaway gag in Family Guy.

Argylle had a cast filled with stars and talent. Vaughn has in the past cast actors against type: Nicolas Cage played a Batman-like character in Kick-Ass, Kevin Bacon was a supervillain in X-Men: First Class, and Kingsman: The Secret Service showed what Colin Firth could have been like as James Bond. In Argylle, Sam Rockwell who got to be a character actor and often plays villains became an unlikely action hero. The film made a point that Rockwell’s character was someone who could blend in a crowd with his slender build, which was in contrast to Henry Cavill’s Argylle who was a muscular model type with a ridiculous dress sense. Rockwell did share good chemistry with Howard whose relationship evolved during the film, although Howard wasn’t as convincing as an action hero.

Argylle was filled with stunt casting. Henry Cavill got top billing in the promotional material, but he was fifth in the credit in the film. His casting was a bit of an in-joke because he was nearly cast as James Bond, but lost out to Daniel Craig. Along with his roles in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Cavill still seems like he’s auditioning to play Bond. While Cavill’s screen time was limited, he was still pivotal to the story, actors like John Cena, Ariana DeBose, and Dua Lipa had minor roles and the marketing misled audiences into believing their roles were more significant.

Argylle was Diet Kingsman and not as clever as it thought it was. Vaughn’s visual flair was still on display, but it seems he has fallen his own hype and Argylle was one of his weaker films.