Argylle Is On-Brand Action-Comedy from Matthew Vaughn

Henry Cavill in Argylle. Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures; Apple Original Films; and MARV

When the trailer for Argylle dropped last fall, I was immediately on board. A Matthew Vaughn movie about an author who finds out her spy novels have been getting uncomfortably close to reality when an actual spy shows up and tells her a shadowy organization is after her? With Henry Cavill as the James Bond type? Count me in. It looked like good goofy fun, even if the prominently featured CGI cat didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

It’s not Vaughn’s best work, but the movie mostly delivers on its Stranger than Fiction meets Kingsman formula. It’s a delight to watch Cavill ham it up as a Bond parody whose very square haircut is complemented by increasingly square suits. Bryan Cranston goes all-in on scenery chewing from the first second he’s on screen. The actual leads, Bryce Dallas Howard as author Elly Conway and Sam Rockwell as secret agent Aidan, have reasonably good chemistry as the odd-couple duo of bodyguard and protectee; the movie leans into the timid author stereotype in a lot of ways, but Elly does feel like a real person more often than a collection of tropes. I regret to report that Alfie the CGI cat is not much better in context, though he’s thankfully played by an actual cat—apparently Claudia Schiffer’s pet Scottish fold—for a decent portion of the movie.

Sam Rockwell as Aidan and Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly. Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures; Apple Original Films; and MARV

This is a Matthew Vaughn production through and through, and everything has a sense of heightened (un)reality even before the plot really kicks off. This self-awareness sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t—without giving anything away, a good amount of it is winking fun, but some of the plot points are eye-rolling, and the lampshading from multiple characters feels more like the kind of cop-out Elly’s mom accuses her of writing than in-jokes with the audience. It also isn’t always clear when the visuals look artificial on purpose as a stylistic choice and when they’re just not great to look at.

The pacing likewise sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Despite the action keeping up pretty continuously, the plot somehow manages to feel like it drags in places, and I was definitely feeling the almost two-and-a-half-hour run time by the end.

On the other hand, when everything works, it works. The plethora of Chekhov’s-gun moments mostly pay off with laughs, even if there are a lot of them. And everyone involved is clearly having a great time.

Bryan Cranston as Ritter. Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures; Apple Original Films and MARV

There are plenty of Vaughn’s trademark action scenes, which of course get increasingly ridiculous as the movie goes on. They’re stylish as always, though the camera work and/or editing on some of them takes away a bit of their pizzaz. One thing I usually appreciate about Vaughn fights is the way they follow the action clearly (often gratuitously so) even when the camera is moving around pretty frenetically—despite no shortage of handheld camera moves, scenes like the infamous Kingsman church melee always put your eye right where it needs to be. That occasionally felt like it was lacking here, though rest assured there’s more than enough of the requisite slow-mo in other places. The fights in the last act require a healthy suspension of disbelief even by the standards of reality the film has set by that point, but if you ignore all the physics and just enjoy the ride, they’re silly fun.

In short, if you’re a fan of the Vaughn-iverse who enjoyed the Kingsman sequels even if they didn’t measure up to the original, Argylle will have something for you to like (and you’ll want to stick around for the midcredits scene). If not, whether you have a good time will depend in large part on how well you can turn off your brain and appreciate it for what it is.

And hey—we only have a couple months to wait for the next action-comedy spy movie starring Henry Cavill.

Henry Cavill as Argylle, Dua Lipa as Lagrange, and John Cena as Wyatt. Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures; Apple Original Films; and MARV