We’re officially done with January, which is commonly known as the worst movie month of the year. Let’s not get too crazy, though. February is a close second, literally and metaphorically. Leading off this month, we have the latest foray into espionage from Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Layer Cake) – Argylle.
Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is an author of the best-selling book series, Argylle. This series of books, details the exploits of its main character (Henry Cavill) as he travels the globe with his team, looking to take down the evil Directorate. While attempting to finish her most recent Argylle novel, Elly finds herself in the middle of a global conspiracy.
Conway is thrust into the role of the woman who knew too little. She’s done her research on government agencies, but when a real spy (Sam Rockwell) comes to save her life, she holds tight to her own survival and her cat.
The marketing for Argylle really really wants you to believe that Henry Cavill (whose flattop is a crime against humanity) and Dua Lipa are the stars here, and for what little screen time they have, they get to ham it up and have a great time. However, the actual stars are Howard and Rockwell. The script drops the story within a story in the first act. There are some fun edits that switch out Rockwell and Cavill, but beyond that, the spy book characters are a passing thought.
This is a sneaky Valentine’s Day movie. Even though “Love” isn’t the emphasis of the story, Argylle does put the two leads on a fun romp where they constantly risk life and limb. It’s also quite humorous, which largely falls on the shoulders of Rockwell, who has killer timing and subtle one-liners.
Matthew Vaughn has made several tight and hilarious film experiences. He has been quite good with pacing and then shocking the audience into guffaws. Argylle, sadly, is him off of his game. First, at two hours 20 minutes, he’s trying to pack way too much story and spy cliches in, and it ends up feeling like a casserole of a few different movies. There are so many lulls in the story and far too much exposition.
Vaughn has made a great throwback to 60s era Bond with Kingsman, but has lost his flair here. A lot of the storytelling, twists, and even environment feel synthetic. There’s an abundant use of CG that isn’t believable, but the script is also very redundant.
However, even with these negatives working against it, I was never annoyed with the experience. Rather, I felt entertained almost consistently. That’s due to the rapport between the leads. Their counterplay often works better than the inevitable cartoonish action scenes. Also, this is a very blatant PG-13 movie. While there’s plenty of gunplay and violence, there’s no blood or impact to be seen. The movie would benefit with a bit more shock value.
Argylle is messy and overly long, but manages to be entertaining. There’s a lot of cleverness in the inital premise, but it loses most of that with every revealed twist. It will be a fun Valentines or Galentines movie, as there’s great chemistry between Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell. Just expect a fun romp that you’ll forget about soon after, outside of what they did to Henry Cavill’s hair. That will stay with you for years. Quality-wise, this isn’t impressive, but the actors save the day by bringing the laughs. B-
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