A fairly brainless film about intelligence
Argylle (12A), (a whopping 139 mins), Cineworld Cinemas
Films in which an author’s characters come to life and lead them on an adventure are always appealing, and this one is pretty good – but damaged in the end by some pretty questionable choices. For a film about intelligence it’s certainly guilty of some pretty crass brainlessness which not even the quest for entertainment can wholly excuse.
The gist is that Bryce Dallas Howard is Elly Conway, the hide away creator of a mega- successful series of spy novels. Despite the action-packed world shecreates, all shereally wants to do is curl up at home with her cat who rather bizarrely spends almost the entire film in a backpack. there are moments where you suspect he is having a rather better time than we are.
But it’s clever stuff to start with. Elly’s problem is that somehow she is just so good at re creating a world of espionage, evil syndicates and covert operations that she ends up predicting what’s going to happen in real life – which makes her hot property whenthegoodies and the bad dies want to recover a master file containing heaven knowswhat.
And that’s the point where her fictional creations turn on her and tell her she can do better – and then they drag her in. Orsoit seems.
Meanwhile apparently reallife goodies and real-life bad dies are after her, particularly aid en (good fun from Sam Rockwell) who is seemingly out to protect he ron awhizz around the world in which they are trying to stay a step aheadof the villains.
The neatness of the plot is that you soon start wondering just who Elly was and quite where she got her special powers from. All is revealed as the film twists and turns, fiction and reality ever more blurred and not even reality seeming awfully clear.
But then something odd happens. There is a hideouslysick throwaway Dahmer line –and then, against a power ballad background and plum es of beautifully coloured smoke–it’ s really quite the picture – Elly and Aiden with balletic grace and supreme artistry gun down dozens of villains.
What on earth were the filmmakers thinking? It’s cartoon violence. Of course, it is. But are we really supposed to believe murder is somehow fun if you’re a big-screen spy?
And then it gets worse. Next up, in a vast room where crude oil is spreading across the floor, Elly with elegance and poise “ice-skates” round and round slashing everyone to death with hideous blades. If this is your idea of entertainment, then this is a filmyouwilllove.
Again, ofcourse, it’s cartoon violence, but canthat really excuse the fact that it is actually prettysick?
Imagination soars in a picture full of invention which steadfastly refuses to finish, but any doubts you might have had about it in the first hour and a half crystallise in sequences which are frankly horrid. And yes, I knowthisiscomedy. This is make-belief. This is entertainment. But does that really makeitok?
Perhaps oddest thing of all, though, is that The Beatles’ Then And Now (how on earth did they manage to include it so quickly?) is somethingof aleitmotiv in the film – a film about then and now, so it’s certainly clever in that respect. But it’s a fabulous song and certainly deserves a far better movie than this one.