Argylle - A Movie Review

Did you ever think you’d be transported into your own story?

Argylle landed in theaters in 2024. Elly Conway is a reclusive author who writes novels about secret agents and romance. When she has writer’s block on her current story, she travels for inspiration. Elly gets more inspiration than intended when she ends up in a real-time spay scenario similar to her book.

Argylle starts as an action-packed comedy with an exciting story-writing excerpt but unravels into one plot after another. The film becomes so tedious and convoluted in figuring out how to handle its twists.

Starring Bryce Dalles Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, and Catherine O’Hara feature great performances. That doesn’t go for their characters. The characters lack emotions and are not developed enough. There are strange acting choices like O’Hara channeling Moira Rosa for most of her performance.

Henry Cavil, John Cena, and Dua Lipa are a riot as the characters in Elly’s story. They had fun with the absurdity angle but did a great job of accomplishing the tone. As much as I love Samuel L. Jackson, his character doesn’t add much to the story.

The writers weren’t finished developing Elly Conway (Howard). Elly is a writer until a certain revelation. This revelation doesn’t make sense for her character. Howard’s reactions to the action are hilarious, but her character loses traction.

Sam Rockwell is the best part of Argylle. He has become one of my favorite actors. Rockwell has a knack for comedy. Me and a few other women cackled in the theater at his hilarious one-liners and reactions to situations. Despite the various plot changes, Rockwell delivered the best assignment of all.

Argylle is all over the place in what it wants to be. The movie is heavily caffeinated, jumping from one scenario to the next. It should have remained a story of a writer undergoing writer’s block and ending up in a spy scenario.

My favorite aspect of this film is seeing a visual representation of Ellie’s story. More films have been doing this lately. The story intercepts in real-time as Elly tries to figure out the right dialogue and character development. Arguably, it had the best action sequences.

Matthew Vaughn overloaded the story with action sequences, twists, and comedy. While the comedy is funny, and the fight scenes are well choreographed, the meandering storyline bogs the film down. The ‘oil-skating’ in the climax is an original concept.

It’s easy to note the green screen and CGI visual effects. The CGI needed fresher enhancements instead of using obvious green screen backgrounds which blurred the screen. The cat was heavily CG’d in several scenes.

Speaking of which, there’s no point to the cat. Alfie is featured in the trailer more than in the actual film! It spends the entirety of the film in a cat backpack and disappears for most of the second act. The cat had more potential than what it was given.

This film is way too long! I was waiting for it to end on several occasions. Nobody took the proper time to edit either. The concept is ridiculous, though in a good way. How often do we get movies where we can just turn our minds off and have a laugh?

Argylle is not perfect, but it is entertaining. It’s not a bad film like what most critics have been saying. Preferably, I love a good spy movie that doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s a unique style that deserves a fresher edit. Don’t miss out on Argylle because it is really funny!