Matthew Vaughn has always been a director I have admired. Whether you are talking about his earlier works in Layer Cake or Stardust, or his over-the-top action films in Kick-Ass or The Kingsman films, I have never disliked his work until recently. It was not until 2021's The King's Man that I found his work to feel a little stale. That film didn't work for me on many levels, but I have either liked or loved the rest of his filmography otherwise. Well, you can put Argylle down as another one of his that I liked. There has been a lot of criticism, but I do not fully agree with it.
This is going to be a difficult one to describe without sounding confusing, but I will give it a go. Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a novelist who has written a book series known as Argylle. What she does not realize is that the events of the book have actually happened in reality and continue to happen in real-time as she writes her next sequel. In comes Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell), a spy who shows up to protect Elly and takes her on a crazy adventure, avoiding a real-life spy organization out to get her. While this plot goes on, Elly sees visions of the main character in her book, Argylle (Henry Cavill), who helps her both keep and lose focus on her tasks. What I will say is that this film did not market itself well.
Audiences see Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, and John Cena all over the posters and trailers, but in reality, they collectively have about 10-20 minutes of screen time in a film that is nearly two and a half hours long. Some viewers will be bothered by this so I thought I would mention it, but the fact is, I love both Sam Rockwell and Bryce Dallas Howard and I thoroughly enjoyed their chemistry together here, so I was easily able to forgive that. Where I will complain about the film though, is the fact that it tries to be too clever for its own good. Once something is revealed to the audience as a twist, another twist or two is layered within that twist, and then another few twists are just around the corner. It kept me on the edge of my seat and made it impossible to predict what was coming next (even though I kind of predicted the ending), which was nice, it was just too much all at once.
Aside from the ridiculous amount of twists, this film (aside from the opening action sequences) has a fun story and quite a bit of action, especially in the last act. With that said though, as long as you are in for anything (as I was being a Matthew Vaughn fan), the last 30 minutes are just simply wild. Once the main plot twist occurs in the film, it becomes a completely different experience and it shifts gears into silliness, but because I like how Vaughn does silly, I was still in for the ride. I also liked the second Kingsman film, so I know this one won't be for everyone. Simply put, this film is too much, but it was too much of a bunch of things I enjoyed watching, so I can't be overly harsh here. In my opinion, Argylle is a good time and I recommend it, but be aware it gets pretty bonkers.
This is going to be a difficult one to describe without sounding confusing, but I will give it a go. Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a novelist who has written a book series known as Argylle. What she does not realize is that the events of the book have actually happened in reality and continue to happen in real-time as she writes her next sequel. In comes Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell), a spy who shows up to protect Elly and takes her on a crazy adventure, avoiding a real-life spy organization out to get her. While this plot goes on, Elly sees visions of the main character in her book, Argylle (Henry Cavill), who helps her both keep and lose focus on her tasks. What I will say is that this film did not market itself well.
Audiences see Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, and John Cena all over the posters and trailers, but in reality, they collectively have about 10-20 minutes of screen time in a film that is nearly two and a half hours long. Some viewers will be bothered by this so I thought I would mention it, but the fact is, I love both Sam Rockwell and Bryce Dallas Howard and I thoroughly enjoyed their chemistry together here, so I was easily able to forgive that. Where I will complain about the film though, is the fact that it tries to be too clever for its own good. Once something is revealed to the audience as a twist, another twist or two is layered within that twist, and then another few twists are just around the corner. It kept me on the edge of my seat and made it impossible to predict what was coming next (even though I kind of predicted the ending), which was nice, it was just too much all at once.
Aside from the ridiculous amount of twists, this film (aside from the opening action sequences) has a fun story and quite a bit of action, especially in the last act. With that said though, as long as you are in for anything (as I was being a Matthew Vaughn fan), the last 30 minutes are just simply wild. Once the main plot twist occurs in the film, it becomes a completely different experience and it shifts gears into silliness, but because I like how Vaughn does silly, I was still in for the ride. I also liked the second Kingsman film, so I know this one won't be for everyone. Simply put, this film is too much, but it was too much of a bunch of things I enjoyed watching, so I can't be overly harsh here. In my opinion, Argylle is a good time and I recommend it, but be aware it gets pretty bonkers.