The Spy Who Forgot They Loved Me

Argylle is further proof that Mathew Vaughn is a director of style. You can always rely on his films to have some visual flair and stylish action sequences. How good the films actually are can vary wildly and Argylle is pretty much slap bang in the middle of his filmography quality wise.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays Elly Conway, a writer of spy fiction who is so good at predicting espionage antics that her books have actually described the real antics of a shady renegade group of agents who know want to abduct her to gain the inside track on a missing computer drive that could expose them. Trying to keep her out of their clutches, and recover the drive himself, is good guy spy Sam Rockwell.

The movie is actually a fairly different from the one many people may have expected based on the trailers. Henry Cavill is in the film as square haired super spy Argyll (along with his even more musclebound sideman John Cena), but only as part of Elly's thoughts. This mainly boils down to an opening sequence and a few action scenes that cut between Rockwell doing whatever he can to off the bad guys and Cavill effortlessly dispatching them in Elly's imagination, a total of 10-15 minutes screen time. What we actually get is something of an action rom-com focused on Dallas Howard and Rockwell. While this may annoy those who came to see the former Superman its a nice change of tone for Vaughn compared to a Kick Ass or Kingsman film. The smooth action remains but out go the anal sex jokes and blood in favour of a pretty sweet storyline of saving the day together.

Said storyline is, on the one hand, a basic globetrotting (or standing in front of a green screen) Mcguffin chase but the twists come thick and fast. Barely fifteen minutes ever goes by without a reveal of some kind and while they vary in effectiveness and logic the frenetic pace means the film never feels like it is coasting. Still, come the final credits you may be left wondering exactly what was going on, especially after a bizarre final revelation and mid credits scene that either reframe the movie or are completely meaningless.

Carrying the film through even the least convincing stretches are the stellar cast. Bryce Dallas Howard has screen prescience and likability for days and gets to show off some range. Sam Rockwell is such a natural in a role like this you wonder why nobody has been able to tempt him to do more of these kind of movies. Together they have great chemistry and their unfolding relationship carries the film. They are ably assisted by a supporting cast including the like of Catherine O'Hara, Bryan Cranston and Samuel L. Jackson.

To say everything about Argylle completely works would be an overstatement and it doesn't come together as well as Vaughn's best, but if you're in the mood for a fun, twisty slice of action anchored by two charismatic leads then you could do a lot worse.

7 grumpy faced cats out of 10.

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