Review: Argylle

Image courtesy of Apple Studios.

Matthew Vaughn's "Argylle" is an example of a movie starting out promisingly enough but then going downhill when a director indulges in his worst instincts. It's not a bad movie, but it is an overlong, overcooked, and over-the-top one.

The film's opening sequence involves the titular spy (Henry Cavill) taking part in a mission in which he must deal with an international criminal (Dua Lipa), and things go awry when Argylle's partner (John Cena) learns that the agency for which they work is actually the bad guy.

Then, we realize the story is merely the plot of a novel by a popular author named Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), who specializes in espionage fiction. Her books sell like gangbusters but she's a little creatively blocked on how to finish the fifth installment. Her mother (Catherine O'Hara) suggests they spend the weekend together to figure out the finale.

However, on the way there, Elly is intercepted by Aidan (Sam Rockwell), an actual spy who tells Elly that her books have caught the attention of an undercover agency known as the Division - which is similar to the one in her novels - who believe that her stories are actually predicative of actual goings-on in the spy world. If this sounds far fetched, there actually is an answer (also far fetched) as to why this is happening.

Aidan prevents Elly from being killed by a group of baddies aboard a train and the two of them flee to London, where they are pursued once more by the Division, which is operated by Ritter (Bryan Cranston), who shows no mercy for flunkies that make mistakes. From here, Aidan takes Elly to meet a man (Samuel L. Jackson) who was previously involved in the CIA.

And this is where the picture starts to go off the tracks - not at first, despite a somewhat ludicrous plot twist, but due to a number of deliriously over-the-top action sequences that follow. First, there are numerous double crosses, although not all of them are genuine and it's never that difficult to figure out who is on whose side. By the time we get to a dance sequence shootout filled with colorful tear gas and then shortly thereafter an ice skating-themed shootout, my thoughts wandered to whether an intervention might have helped.

"Argylle" is stylish, occasionally funny, entertaining enough early on, and it boasts some decent performances (Rockwell is the MVP here), but it's a case of there being too much for too long. Vaughn's films vary for me from enjoyable ("Layer Cake") to not-so-much (the "Kingsman" films). "Argylle is goofier and more likable than that latter series, although there's a post-scene credits sequence that was somewhat confusing and completely unnecessary that left me shaking my head.

This is a movie that has its moments, but it's also one that has entirely too many moments in general. There's no good reason for it to run two hours and 20 minutes and the excess of its final shootouts and fight scenes bring it down a notch. This could have been a better film had it been tighter, a little more focused, and a picture that utilized a less-is-more strategy.