Argylle (12A)

Novelist Elly Conway completes the manuscript for the fifth book featuring dashing secret agent Argylle. Soon after, she travels by train to see her mother accompanied by her beloved pet cat Alfie. En route, bona fide spy Aidan rescues her from knife-wielding assassins who have been ordered to kill Elly because the plot of her latest book bears a spooky similarity to real-life espionage.

LondonNet Film Review

Argylle (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

The human skull is shockingly brittle. That’s the takeaway learning from director Matthew Vaughn’s action-packed spy caper, which is intended as the opening chapter of a rumbustious new universe populated by daredevil secret agents who will eventually rub shoulders with the debonair Kingsman. It’s unclear how two worlds might collide (a post-credits tease lays the narrative groundwork) but Argylle is a satisfying if uneven standalone mission that shares creative DNA with Vaughn’s previous forays into the shadowy world of global espionage…

He delivers trademark slam-bang thrills with gusto, evidenced by an outlandish opening sequence replete with discofied dance sequence. For all its swagger and strut, something doesn’t click for me in the opening 90 minutes before the slickest stunt sequence you’ll see all year. I can’t quite put my finger on that missing ingredient. It’s like biting into the most delicious doughnut and only finding a dollop of luscious jam in the final mouthfuls.

A breathlessly paced prologue introduces us to globe-trotting operative Argylle (Henry Cavill) and his associates – muscle man Wyatt (John Cena) and spunky field technician Keira (Ariana DeBose) – on the trail of seductive terrorist-for-hire Lagrange (pop siren Dua Lipa). These larger-than-life characters are the creations of reclusive novelist Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), who has just completed the manuscript for the fifth Argylle book. She is obsessed with her work and often daydreams about the secret agent.

Elly elicits feedback on the next book from her mother Ruth (Catherine O’Hara), who bluntly suggests an in-person brainstorming session to remedy a problematic final chapter. Ruth needles her daughter about nurturing a meaningful relationship with someone other than her pet cat Alfie. “What is the point of success if you have no one to enjoy it with?” the matriarch urges. During a cross-country train journey, fiction bleeds into reality when scruffy spy Aidan (Sam Rockwell) rescues Elly from knife-wielding assassins, who have been ordered to kill the writer because her bestsellers predict real-life global espionage perpetrated by the diabolical Division. To stay alive, Elly places her trust in Aidan and former CIA deputy director Alfred Solomon (Samuel L Jackson).

Argylle fires on all cylinders from the moment Elly shakes waking dreams of her literary hero including some adrenaline-pumping delirium set to the soaring vocals of X Factor winner Leona Lewis. Before then, Jason Fuchs’s script twists and turns furiously like a cornered rattlesnake. Howard and Rockwell catalyse an adorable on-screen partnership while Cavill reminds the producers of the Bond franchise that he’s available to sip martinis even with a 1980s flattop haircut borrowed from Dolph Lundgren’s brutish Soviet Union boxer in Rocky IV. For prolonged stretches, Vaughn’s picture underwhelms but he ends on a giddy high which bodes well for two proposed sequels.

– Jo Planter