Argylle review: overlong thriller relies on too many twists

Three entries into the Kingsman franchise, director Matthew Vaughn has launched another spy saga in the form of Argylle. Supposedly drawn from the as-yet-unpublished fourth Argylle novel by mild-mannered author, Elly Conway, the movie follows Elly (Bryce Dallas Howard) as she's drawn into the very real world of espionage by Aiden (Sam Rockwell). 

Elly's novels chart Agent Argylle's (played by Henry Cavill) attempts to take down a global spy network that's gone rogue. As it transpires, her novels mirror a real-life operation, and the covert organization desperately wants her to finish the story so they can predict what will happen next. As threats start to mass against her, she's forced to put herself in Argylle's shoes and the lines between fact and fiction blur over. 

If you're in the market for a new spy thriller, all the trappings of the genre are present in Argylle. It's a globetrotting adventure with punchy action scenes, secretive agencies, and double-crossing twists and roadblocks galore. 

The twist is, like Kingsman, that this story is filtered through Vaughn's flair for crunchy, close-up combat, paired with a story that leans towards the sillier side of spying.  Kingsman fans will also no doubt appreciate the subtle nods to the other organization scattered around (and a mid-credits tease all but confirms a potential future collaboration between agents is on the cards). 

That said, even though the world's lavishly presented, the visual effects let the movie down, both in some of the action setpieces (like the opening chase sequence through Greece). The fight choreography varies in quality across the film, and its punch-ups, though inventive, remain eclipsed by that kinetic church brawl from The Secret Service)

The cast's performances are solid across the board. Rockwell's Aiden is an endearing send-up of what Elly and the audience expect a superspy to be, and he plays him in an almost elastic, slapstick way: he's capable in combat, but some of the punches he take send him spiralling across the screen.

Bryce Dallas Howard is just as entertaining to watch in the lead role. Elly's a fish out of water in this world (despite her talent for detailed research!), and Howard bounces off her protector really well. And as the story wears on, she becomes a bonafide action hero in her own right. Seeing the pair step into a new kind of role is a treat, and their partnership is easily the best part of the movie. 

Henry Cavill also has a lot of fun with his meta role as the titular agent. As the fictional superspy, he gets to flex his comedic muscles a tad, offering sly winks to the camera whenever Elly visualizes him during a scrap. If anything, it's a shame we don't actually get to see more of him —or the rest of the supporting cast — in action. 

The structure of Argylle's story — which bears some striking similarities to Prime Video's Citadel, as it happens — is honestly my biggest issue with the movie. It clocks in at a lengthy 139 minutes, and the rug-pulling twists come thick and fast and never let up. Twist after twist might help to keep you on the edge of your seat and help maintain Argylle's breezy pace, but the effect wore off long before they kept coming along. 

Rather than feeding into the whole "who or what can we trust" atmosphere Argylle wants to foster, this structure left the whole adventure feeling a little weightless. By the third act, this structure just started to feel overindulgent, working against the movie's charm.

Entertaining though it is, Argylle's overall presentation and frustrating structure let it down, and it runs out of steam long before the credits roll. 

Argylle is in theaters from Thursday, February 1, and on Friday, February 2 in the US and will be streaming on Apple TV Plus at a later date.