Cast: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Adrian Martinez, Danny Sapani, and Laurence Fishburne
Genre: Action, Thriller
Director: James Hawes
In Irish Cinemas: 11th April 2025
When his wife is murdered in a London terrorist attack, introverted CIA techie Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) defies his superiors and goes on a one-person mission to hunt for the killers.
The revenge thriller is among the most satisfying staples of cinema. Generally, it features a hero with a very particular set of skills physically dominating anyone and everyone who gets in their way en route to the ultimate catharsis of seeing wrongdoers get their comeuppance. That’s not the case in director James Hawes’ sophomore feature, The Amateur. Based on the novel by Robert Littell, our bad-guy-hunting hero isn’t a highly trained former assassin. He’s not even competent with a gun. Instead, Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is a desk-bound cryptographer, a “nerdy fella who works on computers”, as one character calls him. On paper, it’s an intriguing approach. But the execution is only semi-successful.
The Amateur is at its best in the first act. Once his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) is murdered and Charlie commits to going after the killers, Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli’s script leans into his naivety and inexperience. Charlie’s training with grizzled retired colonel Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) goes poorly. Charlie quickly learns that getting his hands dirty and doing the deed is much more complicated than he imagined, making big mistakes. It’s relatable and realistic.
That soon shifts as Heller puts his intelligence and resourcefulness towards crafting intricate traps for his targets. The best kill — already spoiled in the trailers — is an elaborate sky-pool stunt that marks the film’s flashy high point. Still, something is lost in Heller’s overly quick shift from a bumbling newbie to a calm, collected and hypercompetent killer.
At the same time, the thematic storytelling hits all the beats you’d expect from a revenge thriller without digging too deep. A thread about government accountability involving CIA Deputy Director Moore (Holt McCallany) and his new boss (Julianne Nicholson) is especially undercooked, and it all leads to an ending that is, at best, too neat and, at worst, implausible.
While he can be overly stiff and one-note, Malek is convincing as an unlikely, easy-to-root-for hero stepping out of his comfort zone. The rest of the stacked supporting cast is a mixed bag. No one here is more underutilised than Jon Bernthal; playing a field agent who’s fond of Charlie, you could remove all three of his scenes from the movie, and it wouldn’t change a thing. Elsewhere, Fishburne is fitfully entertaining as Henderson, his blunt dynamic with Charlie soon turning into begrudging respect. Caitriona Balfe also makes the most of her scenes as Inquiline, a hacker who soon becomes a valuable ally to Charlie. There’s a tenderness to their dynamic that’s much more resonant than anything we get with Malek and Brosnahan; Charlie keeps getting visions of Sarah that add up to precious little emotional capital.
That’s indicative of The Amateur as a whole—despite flashes of promise, the extra gear needed to take its thrills from modest to gripping is not in its skillset. Operating with more of a steady pulse than a full-on thrill ride, this revenge flick exchanges fists for brains with only decent results.
Overall: 6/10
Movie Reviewer
