Argylle
Matthew Vaughn’s spy spoof is all over the place, like an MTV chart show on ecstasy.
Make-believe: Dua Lipa is given a lift by Henry Cavill
Photo Credit: Peter Mountain, Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Twenty years ago, Matthew Vaughn made his directorial debut with Layer Cake. Now, eight movies later, Argylle has more layers than a tower of filo pastry. The film’s motto would seem to be, `the greater the spy, the bigger the lie,’ and so Argylle is one big filo fib. Nothing is what it seems and just as you can’t trust a single character, so you can’t trust the movie. Is it a spoof? A charade? A farce? Or just one big joke made at the expense of the audience? The biggest joke would seem to be Henry Cavill, who has the title role, a super-agent with an unfortunate choice in hairstyles.
As it happens, Aubrey Argylle is merely a literary conceit – like Channing Tatum's Dash McMahon in The Lost City – the dashing star of a series of best-selling novels penned by the timid, lonesome Elly Conway (who is “in a relationship with her work”). Even when she is propositioned by a handsome fan at a book launch, she turns him down to spend a quiet night in with her long-suffering cat, Alfie. Cajoled out of her Colorado retreat by her mother, she takes a train to visit her concerned parent (Catherine O’Hara), rather than take a plane. She is that retiring. And this is where it gets interesting. As she is snuggling behind her copy of Christopher Andrew’s The Defence of the Realm, and defending her space, a wild-looking man (Sam Rockwell) plops down in front of her and starts reading her latest hardback, Argylle. It doesn’t take him long to match the photograph on the dust cover with his fellow passenger, and to Elly’s horror he immediately engages her in conversation. He happily tells her that he is involved in espionage and to prove it he disarms a small army of gun-toting adversaries that appear out of nowhere. And all the while Elly superimposes the image of Argylle (Cavill) on the shaggy countenance of her new companion…
It is regrettable that the fight scenes – of which there are many – are staged like a series of music videos, complete with accompanying song. This robs each sequence of any sense of peril or excitement or plausibility, and one wonders what the point is. To compensate for such tedium, Vaughn treats us to some eye-catching vistas of Colorado and France, and central London, although as a Londoner he should know that you can’t see the Shard through the centre of the Albert Memorial. But then little in Argylle gels with reality, such as a ludicrous scene involving an oil slick and a pair of improvised ice skates. And, as Elly’s real colours begin to surface, it’s hard to believe Bryce Dallas Howard as our heroine.
A twist or two is fine, but when a whole movie is built on a labyrinth of U-turns it is challenging to sustain one’s emotional investment. The film is nothing if not colourful, and equally baffling, such as when yet another operative, played by Samuel L. Jackson, embarks on a history of the pinot noir grape, something which obviously belongs in another movie.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Henry Cavill, Sofia Boutella, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, Samuel L. Jackson, Richard E. Grant, Rob Delaney, Jing Lusi, Louis Patridge, Ben Daniels, David Bedella, Jason Fuchs, Clementine Vaughn.
Dir Matthew Vaughn, Pro Matthew Vaughn, Adam Bohling, David Reid and Jason Fuchs, Ex Pro Claudia Vaughn, Screenplay Jason Fuchs, Ph George Richmond, Pro Des Russell De Rozario and Daniel Taylor, Ed Lee Smith and Tom Harrison-Read, Music Lorne Balfe, Costumes Stephanie Collie, Sound Alyn Sclosa, Choreography Ash Wallen, Dialect coaches Conor Fenton, Sandra Frieze and Neil Swain.
Apple Original Films/Marv Studios/Cloudy Productions-Universal Pictures.
138 mins. UK/USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 2 February 2024. Cert. 12A.
