THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
If there is one thing we learned from Ian Fleming, being a spy is not for everyone because you’ll be entering a world of insanity once you’re committed. That is why he wrote the 007 books to such a case, but it’s crazy how that inspired a whole other batch of insanity.
PLOT
Argylle follows author Elly Conway who writes spy novels about fictional spy Aubrey Argylle. As she writes her fifth novel she intends to promote as her last of the series, she has writer’s block and her mother Ruth encourages her to travel to gain inspiration. It comes in more than one way because as she takes a train with her pet cat Alfie, she meets an actual spy named Aidan Wilde who protects her from opposing agents working Director Ritter and his organization ‘The Division’. The Division is after her because her books have seemingly predicted the future and hope to retrieve her in order to prevent them being stopped with a ‘Masterkey’ flash drive. At London, Elly is encouraged by Aidan to write her last chapter that would expose the Division. Afraid that he will kill her, she calls her parents, Ruth and Barry, for help. Little does she expect they are both part of the Division; Ritter is Barry and Doctor Margaret Vogel is Ruth but Elly doesn’t realize this until Aidan recognizes them. This causes the protagonists to continue being on the move. Outside France, they meet up with former CIA Deputy Director Alfred Solomon. He would be the one to tell her she named her cat after him because she is the real Argylle, Rachel Kylle, a fellow spy that has been brainwashed by the Division for the past five years and her books are inspired from suppressed memories. Aidan backs up the truth when explaining she had an actual friend named Keira (Ariana DeBose) who died in combat as in her books and he is the inspiration to Argylle’s sidekick Wyatt (John Cena) and were dating as well. The villainous character from her novel named Fowler (Richard E Grant) was also inspired by Ritter. As Rachel, Elly joins Aidan in retrieving the Masterkey at the Arabian Peninsula from Saba Al-Badr (Sofia Boutella), an associate of the Division. That ends up being a trap by the enemy when Vogel corners her and before incapacitating Kylle and Wilde, she reveals that the former was a double agent. Once she returns to their base, Ritter also states that she was a loyal asset and seems to resume such a mindset when shooting Wilde. She almost gives them Solomon’s location until revealing she was always gonna betray them with the Masterkey. Wilde recovers due to the shot being non lethal and Ritter tries interrupting the transmission until Alfie the cat scratches his face out. Once Aidan shoots him, he and Rachel reach the headquarters’ facility exterior which turns out to be a cargo ship. Kylle tries using a satellite connection to continue sending the Masterkey to Solomon, but gets interrupted by Vogel who hypnotizes her into attacking Wilde. The fight almost gets severe until the remaining antagonist is shot by a returning Keira, who survived her death just like Wilde. With her help, Rachel completely sends the file to Solomon and she departs with her inner circle before detonating the oil tanker. Some time after, she has continued her novelist persona and finally published the last novel of her series, but the film ends with her seeing the same man who has been her visual embodiment of Argylle all along.
THOUGHTS
Matthew Vaughn has been known create high octane action flicks thanks to Kingsman & Kick Ass, so it was a no brainer id be in for a treat with this one. Do I like this more than his preceding films? No, but it didn’t need to hit that bar to be entertaining. As long as George Richmond is still doing cinematography for these movies, I’m in no matter what. That and the fast paced editing is what kept me hooked with each action sequence from start to bottom. From the train fight to the elaborate climax that involved a smoke dance and oil skating, it was still a blast. Even the production design is so fantastic I wish I had a lounge that resembles Solomon’s hideout. And you know you can’t take it too serious when there’s a cat in the midst of the commotion. I think the biggest difference this movie has apart from not being a legit comic book adaptation, despite having a post credit scene implying a connection to Kingsman, is that we’re getting a twisted yet cool way to say stay true to yourself in order to enjoy what comes your way. Thanks to a stacked ensemble, I like to believe the message is gotten across. Bryce Dallas Howard gives a strong lead performance as Elly/Rachel because she saw herself as an introvert embracing what she saw was a fantasy until reality returns to her and shows what a badass she has in her all along. Her whole motive was to push herself in terms of expectations with everything she can do and as she gets her life back, she’s able to do exactly that. It’s definitely a trip that she was the real Argylle and a double agent, but it’s obvious she turned against the Division because she came around in realizing their ways wrong, otherwise she would’ve said it was for the money or would’ve made an obvious hint about it. Besides Samuel L Jackson making a chill mentor out of Solomon who speaks from the heart whenever we saw him, Sam Rockwell makes a great companion out of Aidan Wilde because he’s got the confidence to get through the obstacles that come his way and I think that alone is what made them so compatible. Even when ironically having cat allergies, he pushes through because complaining about a peeve isn’t gonna get the job done. I’m still surprised as everyone else with the fact Henry Cavill is both versions of Argylle, both Elly’s visual embodiment of the character and the character itself who are very different from one another apart from their haircuts. The novel version is a natural in being a badass protagonist, and this other half that is the real deal has a laidback form of charm. There are two ways to approach this reveal without overthinking it because I refuse to mistake myself that Rachel’s adventure was all for nothing. I do think the guy is still named Argylle, so he either is a spy as well and his adventures match hers, or he was a stranger that was her one night stand before dating Wilde & losing her memory, and he hopes to reconnect not knowing what she’s done. They’re far fetched, but still believable rather than undoing what we just watched. Because of this, it’s best to leave this alone and not beg for a sequel because I feel like following up on this cliffhanger likely won’t satisfy the majority of the audience. Moving on, I still think we got solid villains out of both Bryan Cranston & Catherine O’Hara because they made it believable in being two-faced people out of both Ritter & Vogel. The difference is that we instantly see the former embrace his true colors before he tries hiding it again, whereas the latter hides it from the start before the cat is out of the bag. They definitely are some sinister people because only these kind of people can brainwash an opposing soy for five years hoping to prevent being taken down. Of all the things that could’ve helped them maintain the upper hand since they did everything right to maintain an advantage, it was being kinder to Alfie. Because they knew Rachel loved her pet more than anything during that five years span, they were screwed the second Ritter chose to dismiss the pet like she wouldn’t care. If Mission: Impossible taught me anything, there is always more than one evil agency in this setting. So whatever were to come next, I’m sure Rachel and company would be there to stop the next threat. This movie is genuinely entertaining, but there were multiple things that bothered much more than forcing the Kingsman connection in the end. For example, is it a smart promotion for Elly to read the ending of her last book or did she spend more than a week reading the whole thing at the same library? I gotta ask because no public reading by an author would ever start at the end to promote their work. It’s even one thing to write an extra chapter for both sides to get to Masterkey, but Vogel and Wilde should know Elly needs more than one chapter to get it right and avoid making a mistake on where it could be. It’s even a bad move on Aidan’s end he chooses to have her come up with something in public without a disguise at least. I understand inspiration can come from sightseeing, but he’s not even trying to be cautious compared to Ritter. And if he was annoyed of her being a liability, he should’ve tested her reflexes when they weren’t on the move. On Ritter’s end, I think he could’ve sent agents for backup if he couldn’t get all her book notes before Aidan intervened. Yeah you could say he didn’t expect him to show up so soon, but after brainwashing Rachel for so long, this should’ve been an easy decision. If anything else, he could’ve still used the brainwashing method but instead lie that she was 100% loyal instead of being a double agent. I also thought the oil skating scene was badass, but it’s a massive continuity error that there is no oil on Rachel’s legs during that whole scene. Of all things, I draw the line with that. If you can still figure out how to ignore these issues, you can still have a good time. In short, Argylle is an elaborate spy film that knew how to spin the wheel as creative as possible. If you have AppleTV+ and dig movies like this, this may be meant for you.
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