REVIEW: ‘Argylle’ is a Movie That Should Have Remained Classified
In Universal Pictures’ Argylle, secluded author, Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is celebrating the success of her most recent book. This book marks the fourth book in her hit series that focuses on the elusive spy, Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill). With four books now under her belt, she has begun work on the fifth book in the series, when she hits a bit of a writer’s block. But she soon learns that writer’s block is the least of her worries. When parts from the next book in the series begin to come to life, Conway must leave the safety of her home and set out on her own spy adventure. With the help of her protector, and real life spy, Aidan (Sam Rockwell), Conway must finish the book if she intends to live to see another day.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn and written by Jason Fuchs, the first 20 minutes of the movie lead you into a false sense of hope. Vaughn and Fuchs use these minutes to lay the pieces for an interesting and entertaining story. Yes, there are some over the top moments, but those moments only help propel the story forward, that is until the 20 minutes are over. After that, the duo completely loses the plot. As the remaining 2 hours tick by the story gets crazier and crazier, and not in an effective way. It was as if the creative team said to themselves, “You think that was crazy? Watch what I do now.” Add in the fact that all the twists featured throughout the movie, except for one, made absolutely no sense. They didn’t fit the overall narrative, and like the outlandish moments, were not necessary.
The story, though, is not the worse part of this movie. That award goes to the movie’s post-production. The CGI in this movie was horrendous. I am not sure what they spent their budget on, but more of it should have gone to CGI. In this day an age, CGI shouldn’t look fake, but in this film every scene that included CGI looked fake and took you completely out of the movie. As did the editing. Typically, movies are fairly good at editing scenes, so you don’t recognize it is a stunt performer acting in the scene. That’s not the case here. You could easily spot the difference between which stunts were done by the actor and which were done by the stunt performer.
The one shining light of this movie was Sam Rockwell as Aidan. His quirky, yet charming take on the character was enjoyable. Add in that fact that his character had the funniest lines in the movie, it’s a shame the other characters couldn’t do the same. Bryce Dallas Howard was miscast as author, Elly Conway. Her performance lacked believability. Bryan Cranston and Catherine O’Hara star as Ritter and Ruth, and I have to wonder what made them want to be a part of this story. Their performances were fine, but their characters made no sense. Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson round out the cast, and like Cranston and O’Hara, I was left wondering what made them want to be a part of this movie.
From the terrible editing to the over-the-top story, there’s nothing great about this movie. I highly recommend passing on this one. If you are insistent on seeing it, wait until it is out on streaming. That way you can watch the first 20 minutes and then decide if you want to turn it off or not.
Grade: D