dir. Matthew Vaughan
Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a shy, unassuming writer who’s enjoyed success with her espionage series about a spy named Argylle. Suddenly, she’s dragged into a real-life spy story when it transpires her books reflect real-life events. This premise could be intriguing if executed correctly, but Argylle clearly wasn’t able to execute it correctly. Ridiculous twist after ridiculous twist, a contrived love story which has no passion to it whatsoever, action scenes set to jaunty pop music in a tired attempt at irony, an array of profoundly unflattering haircuts, and some of the absolute worst CGI ever committed to screen – these elements all combine to make Argylle a weird, borderline alarming experience. The characters are all ludicrous caricatures, speaking in highly affected idioms and vernacular which don’t feel remotely realistic. The action scenes are boring at best, idiotic at worst. And every plot development is even more inane than the last, with characters switching motivations and loyalties as the plot demands. Of course, perhaps this is all meant to be a parody of the spy genre, perhaps we are meant to be laughing with Argylle and not at it. But by the billionth awkward shot of a CGI cat pulling a stupid face, it’s hard to keep laughing at all.
BMDb 