Argylle

A spy caper filtered through the lens of an author’s existential crisis, Argylle is either too clever or not clever enough for its own good.

Either way, style overwhelms substance throughout the latest twisty saga from British director Matthew Vaughn (the Kingsman trilogy), which struggles to generate consistent intrigue or suspense. As a satire, it indulges in many of the same genre tropes it seeks to subvert.

The opening sequence sets an appropriate visually extravagant tone, as debonair agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) flirts with an alluring woman (Dua Lipa) to Barry White’s “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” before the two wind up on opposite sides of a perilous chase through urban Greece.

Soon after, we learn that their showdown never happened at all, but was rather invented by Elly (Bryce Dallas Howard), a reclusive writer on the verge of completing her latest globetrotting espionage novel. Yet her mother (Catherine O’Hara) argues the ending is incomplete.

Perhaps it’s because Elly is almost impossibly timid and averse to adventure — she’s never even been on a plane — and she doesn’t really know her subject. So she hops a train home, only to encounter the disheveled Aidan (Sam Rockwell), who claims to be a spy himself, with a connection to the characters in her books, no less.

The convoluted screenplay by Jason Fuchs (Pan) gradually reveals details of its multilayered mythology and the characters with varying motives and agendas entangled in a complex web of deception and betrayal, shifting loyalties and mistaken identities.

We meet other enigmatic figures including Argylle’s colleagues (John Cena and Ariana DeBose), a mysterious bureaucratic official (Bryan Cranston), and a philosophical ex-CIA officer (Samuel L. Jackson) with various levels of involvement in a high-tech conspiracy.

The film is most appealing while unspooling Vaughn’s cheeky if ostentatious set pieces, which are sharply choreographed, and accompanied by the requisite cool retro soundtrack and exotic scenery.

Meanwhile, the eclectic ensemble cast does its best to inject emotional depth into a head-scratching story that’s more about secrets than sympathy, and nobody is a clear-cut hero or villain.

As reality and fantasy begin to blend together, Argylle doesn’t provide sufficient incentive for moviegoers to care about which is which — or who prevails in the final chapter.

Rated PG-13, 139 minutes.