The Pitch: Ellie Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) lives a quiet life, because she gets plenty of excitement out of writing her best-selling series of spy novels, which feature the heroic Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) as he goes on missions trying to bring down a sinister black-ops organization.
What Ellie doesn’t know is that said black-ops organization is real — at least, until a real-life spy named Aidan (Sam Rockwell) crashes into her life. Soon, Ellie’s running from bullets with her beloved cat Alfie in tow, while she and Aidan to try to figure out why the books she writes have an unsettling connection to reality, and whether her fiction might contain the facts they need to stop the bad guys and save the day.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One: Every generation, give or take, gets a fresh new iteration on Romancing the Stone, though technically Argylle is the second in as many years (The Lost City — underrated!). Yet while this premise might be as familiar as an old sweater, it’s enhanced by the ways in which director Matthew Vaughn (the Kingsman films) incorporates his signature flare for artful violence, delivering 2024’s first truly enjoyable action film. (It’s not even February yet, but still.)
Because Jason Fuchs’s script proves restless with its need to keep delivering more and more twists, it’s difficult to dig into too much of the plot here — though while the twists are pretty nonstop, they also don’t deliver too many dramatic shocks. Instead, the intention is pure easy-going crowd-pleasing, with just enough inventiveness in the staging to keep things lively.
Dance Sam Rockwell Dance/ Feel That Rhythm In Your Pants: Some filmmakers who usually deliver films in the R-rated arena can end up feeling muzzled when forced to deliver something PG-13. However, Vaughn takes this as an opportunity to play up the cartoonish aspects of his action style, delivering set pieces that bring with them plenty of goofy over-the-top charm.
Also, at times Vaughn literally stages them like a dance, which is possibly the smartest move a filmmaker can make when noted good dancer Sam Rockwell is a member of the cast. Only enhancing this aspect of the film is the fact that these sequences are accompanied by disco music, which makes no sense in context: In the press notes, Vaughn explains that to ensure a “feel good” vibe, he turned to “the most feel-good music I could think of, which, for me, is disco,” which doesn’t necessarily enhance the film on any thematic level, but adds to the surface-level pleasures (for disco fans, anyway).
Argylle (Universal)
However, less successfully used is the “new” Beatles song “Now and Then”, which isn’t necessarily a bad song — it made Consequence’s Best 200 Songs of 2023 list — but proves to be distracting and a bit overwrought. (Especially since its usage in the film might also constitute a plot hole.)
Tinkers Tailors Soldiers Spies: While the poster is packed with big names, many of them function largely as cameos — no spoilers as to who specifically that refers to, except to say that if you were expecting this film to launch Dua Lipa’s acting career, you might hold off on that. (She’s not bad, but her screen time is limited.)
Meanwhile, if one person shines in the film, it’s Bryce Dallas Howard, who hasn’t gotten an action showcase like this before, and really rises to its various challenges. (In a nod to some of her past experiences in this genre, at one point she kicks off her heels before beginning to run.)
Sam Rockwell also proves game for anything and everything, with his off-kilter charm serving up some fresh irreverence at key moments, while Samuel L. Jackson shows up to do Samuel L. Jackson things and Catherine O’Hara gets her chance to stretch beyond the straight comedy we know and love her for. Also, would you believe that the dad from Malcolm in the Middle can also play a pretty convincing bad guy? That’s sarcasm, but Bryan Cranston does find some fresh angles to explore in yet another role as the heavy.
The Verdict: Perhaps the best way of approaching Argylle is by considering the cat at the center of its marketing campaign. Alfie is theoretically played by Chip, the Vaughn family cat, but rendered digitally for most of the movie’s runtime (to be clear, for the sake of its safety) — we of course live in a golden age of CGI, but the artificial Alfie unfortunately falls just short of looking and feeling believable most of the time.
However, if you don’t squint too hard at that digital fur, Alfie’s occasional forays into the uncanny valley probably won’t trouble you too much. Similarly, the stakes might technically be high, but at a certain point, Argylle abandons all connection to reality to deliver pure romp from beginning to end. Yes, this at times tips over into silliness, but during a time of real geopolitical upheaval and political uncertainty… maybe there’s nothing wrong with that.
Where to Watch: Argylle arrives in theaters on Friday, February 2nd.
Trailer:
