The new movie “Argylle” could be an example of a screenwriter, writing himself into a corner that did not work, and then the new movie “Argylle” could be an example of a screenwriter, writing himself into a corner that did not work, and then trying to create an insane ending and explanation to rescue the screenplay that mutated into ridiculous and illogical. There are reasons why screenwriting has always been considered the world’s most difficult art form.
The premise of this new film, starring Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway, who is a famous author of a series of related spy novels that happen to have way too much in common with real life. From this idea, there is a 2-hour film attempting to explain how something like this could ever happen, and unfortunately the whole premise never works. Most especially the ending, which is very poorly done and is both stupid and way too crazy.
This film stars Sam Rockwell as Aidan Wilde, who is a spy who tries to help Elly Conway. Other characters who are introduced as fantasies of Elly Conway (another idea that did not work) are Henry Cavill as Argylle and John Cena as Wyatt who appear mostly at the beginning of this film. There are some pretty decent CGI special effects throughout this film, but they that also include Elly’s GGI cat – which does not look that much like a real cat. Considering the action scenes that include the cat in this movie, the director correctly thought that it would be too dangerous to use a real cat – one of the few correct decisions in this movie.
Bryan Cranston as an CIA director and Catherine O’Hara, also appear in this movie, and their respective roles are another part of what is wrong with this entire story and ultimately their parts in this production also do not work.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Argylle are a correct and very low 35% mainly because this is not a good movie on any level. I agree with the low ratings and do not recommend this film. This one is a very big miss.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 