Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Argylle review says the film starts off as catnip and ends up as kitty litter, despite the best efforts of the engaging cast.

Argylle starts out engagingly enough, with Bryce Dallas Howard (known mostly for her work in the Jurassic World franchise but whom we don’t see nearly enough of) playing introverted espionage thriller author Elly Conway. Her carefully curated, cat loving world spins out of control, however, when her fiction begins to mirror the real life actions of a nefarious spy organization.

Not only is Argylle brimming with potential, it’s also front loaded with a first-rate cast. Who wouldn’t want to see Dua Lipa in a vampy blond wig? In addition, you get fanciful performances by Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Catherine O’Hara, Samuel L. Jackson, Bryan Cranston, Ariana DuBose, Sofi Boutella, and an adorable Scottish Fold cat named Chip that not-so-coincidentally belongs to Claudia Schiffer, director Matthew Vaughn’s wife.

It’s a dream team with a dream premise, until…

Argylle review — where the film starts to unravel

Obviously Elly is going to be affiliated with the real international spy world in some way, and that’s perfectly acceptable, but after about a dozen incidences of good guys turning into bad guys turning back into bad guys turning good guys again, you start to lose interest in keeping track. Maintaining life and buoyancy in a film like that for 139 minutes is a feat few directors can handle.

And regretfully, Vaughn is not among them. If you haven’t been put off by the time they reach the fight scene that involves dirty dancing in billowing clouds of rainbow smoke, you will absolutely lose your popcorn when Elly adheres knife blades to her army boots and frantically ice dances across an oil slick, dispatching with dozens of fully armed dark agents as she goes.

Asking viewers to suspend disbelief through ridiculous scenes like these, some set shot on shoddy sets that look like they’re constructed of cardboard, is just a little too much.

I’m thinking about the only ones who are going to benefit from this production are the makers of the ubiquitous yellow and brown argyle-patterned Travel Cat backpack with the bubble window, through which we see the CGI Alfie ad nauseam. Meow.

Rated: PG-13

2 Hours 19 Minutes

If this Argylle review encourages you to pussyfoot your way to the cineplex, get times and tickets at Fandango.com.

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Argylle review says the film starts off as catnip and ends up as kitty litter, despite the best efforts of the engaging cast.