HOLLYWOOD—I am going to say this right away, “Argylle” entertained me to a degree. Yes, there are plenty of people bashing the flick and it deserves some of the slack that it has received. It is a spy-adventure that has too much going on and a bit of the fat needed to be trimmed to turn it into an ok flick, into a solid movie that is entertaining from start to finish. The movie is too long. It clocks in at over two hours and 20 minutes. About 40 minutes of the flick could be trimmed to tighten up the narrative.
The first half of the movie I did not enjoy at all; it was like a slog for me to get through it because there was just too much going on and it was confusing for me. Is this a fantasy, is this real-life, who is who, who is the villain, who is the hero; I was trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out precisely where the narrative was headed.
Sam Rockwell is the star of this flick. He is charismatic; he is funny as hell and he delivers a fun performance for a superhero or spy that you least expected. You might think Bryce Dallas Howard is the star and she is, but Rockwell carries a lot of the dryness that unfolds in the flick. “Agrylle” is a movie that you must pay attention to or you might miss a vital detail. The film follows Elly Conway (Howard), who is a spy novelist who gets entangled in this crazy web of deception. Elly is helped on this journey by actual agent Aidan (Rockwell), who displays some nifty skills to say the least.
Elly and Aidan are the stars, but we also have plenty of star power from Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Henry Cavill, Sofia Boutella, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena and Samuel L. Jackson. Yes, there is plenty of star power here and a lot of it is not utilized to its fullest potential. Lipa is a pretty face simply, DeBose is an Oscar-winner that should have had more meat to her substance, and Cavill also felt like a pretty face that is there, with not much to do.
Director Matthew Vaughn definitely utilizes the camera to produce some nifty sequences that salivate the tongue and entertain you. I’m a fan of Vaughn who helmed previous films like “X-Men: First Class” and “Kingsman: The Secret Service” which are films I can watch over and over again whenever I see them on TV. Those are solid flicks, but it’s probably because Vaughn had a hand in crafting the story. He doesn’t partake in the script in “Agrylle.”
The second portion of this flick had me glued to the screen. I was excited, I wanted to see what is going to unfold and what other twists and turns would be thrown in my direction. I didn’t get that the first half, but the second half totally made up for it and I left the theater happy because it was a satisfying end. I just wished the first part of the movie matched the energy that the second half offered. “Agrylle” is a fun flick for the family, but be warned you might lose some interest in the first hour, but if you’re patient it pays off.
