Matthew Turner | On 20, Apr 2024

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, Samuel L Jackson
Certificate: 12

Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass. Kingsman), this enjoyably silly spy caper opens with a ridiculously over-the-top sequence, in which secret agent Argylle (Henry Cavill, sporting a wild suit and an even wilder hairdo) gets into a high speed chase with a slinky adversary (Dua Lipa), across various rooftops in some sunny European city. Then the rug is suddenly pulled (the first of several fun twists) and it’s revealed that we’re actually at a book launch, hearing about Argylle’s latest adventures in a story read by the author, reclusive redhead Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard).

Struggling with writer’s block, Elly packs her cat, Alfie – played by Chip, Vaughn’s wife Claudia Schiffer’s real-life cat – in a backpack and hops on a train to see her mother (Catherine O’Hara). However, the journey is rudely interrupted by scruffy real-life spy Aiden (Sam Rockwell), who fights off a bunch of murderous passengers and tells Elly that a shadowy organisation known as the Division is trying to bump her off, because her Argylle books are too close to uncovering the reality of their nefarious activities.

The rest of the plot sees Elly and Aiden (and Alfie, still in his cat backpack) fleeing bad guys while trying to thwart the Division and save Elly’s life. But is it a coincidence that Elly has stumbled onto the truth, or is there something else going on?

Plonking Elly’s relatably ordinary stay-at-home author in the middle of madcap action chaos is a key part of the appeal of Argylle, and Bryce Dallas Howard is utterly delightful in the role. As such, she’s the main reason the film works as well as it does – she’s effortlessly charming, exudes screwball comedy chemistry with Rockwell and gets stuck into the action sequences in a way that feels genuinely refreshing, compared to the usual macho nonsense of action pictures.

As for Rockwell, it’s great to see him really enjoying himself again, as he hasn’t had a part like this for a while and the film really lets him cut loose – yes, Rockwell fans, he does do a little dance. There’s also strong support from the likes of Bryan Cranston (as the head of the Division), Samuel L Jackson (as Aiden’s boss) and the ever-reliable Catherine O’Hara.

That said, anyone deciding to see the film based on the presence of Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa or John Cena (all prominently positioned on the poster) is likely to be disappointed, as they are barely in it. Cavill, at least, occasionally appears as Elly’s fantasy version of Aiden, but he has very few lines and is decidedly underused, overall.

The script, by Jason Fuchs, has a lot of fun sending up the tropes and overblown excesses of action movies and spy thrillers, and Vaughn strikes exactly the right tone throughout. To that end, it’s clear that you’re not meant to take a moment of it even remotely seriously, but it still never strays into outright comedy spoof territory.

Vaughn has made a name for himself in the past with enjoyably stylish action scenes (usually executed with catchy needle drops) and that’s the case here too. Highlights include the initial train fight, a sequence involving vibrantly coloured smoke bombs and the film’s go-for-broke set piece, when Elly straps knives to her feet and skates around an oil-slicked floor killing bad guys, excusing her jaw-dropping ability with the line, “I used to be an ice skater.”

Perhaps the most important aspect is that Vaughn has dropped the tendencies towards puerile humour that hampered the Kingsman movies. The result is a breezy and enjoyably silly caper with both style and charm. And that cat is a star in the making.

Add to Watchlist