Throughout the first half of the movie, Vaughn gives us glimpses of the fictional world that Elly created. The adventures of Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) and his sidekick Wyatt (John Cena) draws directly from James Bond movies, from Argylle’s debonair demeanor to the seductive supervillain (Dua Lipa) he romances/fights. But although Bond does exist in this world — Ian Fleming is name checked in the movie, alongside other real spies turned authors — Argylle is a pop culture phenomenon, one that makes Elly Conway a household name.
Elly’s fans include a contingent of “real” spies, including Aiden. At the behest of a secret benefactor, Aiden comes to protect and recruit the reluctant Elly. So detailed are her plots that they have reflected real-world events. Aiden and his enemies, a terrorist organization operated by Bryan Cranston‘s Ritter, want to secure the final chapter of the latest Argylle novel, thereby gaining an intel advantage on the world stage.
Given that setup in the script by Jason Fuchs, Argylle‘s heavy use of spy tropes makes sense. There’s a long cinematic history of stories about genre writers and actors who get swept up in real-world versions of their own fictional creations, most notably Romancing the Stone. But where Romancing the Stone director Robert Zemeckis knew how to distinguish between the fictional world of author Joan Wilder’s (Kathleen Turner) books and the “real” adventure she goes on with smuggler Jack (Michael Douglas), Vaughn cannot resist his slick instincts.
In the first “real-world” action sequence, a long-haired, bearded Aiden fights off legions of spies to save Elly. Vaughn shoots the action through Elly’s point of view, using a blinking eye to switch between Aiden and Agent Argylle battling the baddies. In theory, the blinking eye trope has value, and it’s one that Vaughn employs throughout the film. But the execution fails because there’s not really much difference between Argylle and Aiden. Sure, the hulking, stylish Argylle flashes a wink while he fights, but Rockwell’s natural surfer demeanor seems just as relaxed, to say nothing of the fact that he pulls off ridiculous feats as well as the apparently fictional agent.
The film’s constant use of CGI and false backdrops only exacerbates the problem. It’s not just the fight scenes that use digital graphics to create and composite combatants; even mundane elements are clearly computer generated. Bryan Cranston is all sharp edges while standing in front of the fuzzy yellow lava lamp background of Ritter’s lair, a poor imitation of a Ken Adam lava hideout. The spymaster played by Samuel L. Jackson sits in a desk in a poorly rendered room that’s supposed to be filled with computer screens and sports memorabilia. Even scenes that would otherwise be shot on location, such as the hotel where Elly meets her doting mother (Catherine O’Hara, wonderful as always), look as real as a credit card commercial.
Again, all of these settings occur in the real world of the movie, not in the Argylle adventures imagined by Elly. As a result, the movie not only misses the humor and pathos that could come from the difference between the two worlds, but it makes all of the action and plotting feel familiar. We never truly worry if Elly will save the cat because the cat in question is a CG cartoon that looks even more fake than the Flerken from The Marvels.
