Thursday, 1 February 2024

FILM: Argylle (dir: Matthew Vaughn, 2024)

"I can't believe what's happening to me!"

Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a best-selling author with a series of books about suave fictional superspy Argylle (Henry Cavill), but as her stories come too close to mirroring real-world espionage, she finds herself being pursued by an international crime gang and gets embroiled with a real-life spy (Sam Rockwell).  The film gets off to a cracking start with a preposterously lively episode in the fictional world, but in spite of the many twists and turns in the considerably more static and talky second half, the story is relatively simple and  film runs out of steam.  The few fights/action scenes are frantic and energetically staged, the well-curated pop/disco soundtrack is fun, but it is clear that the film would have benefitted from more comedy Cavill action.  Whilst not the first film to follow this kind of tale, the story developments work satisfactorily and play out quite nicely, and Bryce Dallas Howard and the great Sam Rockwell deliver the lead pair's relationship with easy professionalism.  Overall, Argylle has effective ideas and moments, ending up good rather than great overall but reasonably entertaining.  The early-mid-credits scene takes the meta-shenanigans even one step further!
 

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