The Amateur

Based on the novel by Robert Littell, the 2025 version of The Amateur is the second adaptation, following an unlikely man on a mission of vengeance. 

Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is a CIA cryptographer who’s happily married to Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan). Charlie’s world shatters when Sarah is murdered during a terrorist attack in London. Charlie seeks revenge and blackmails his superiors to give him training so he can hunt his wife’s killers. However, Charlie has made himself a target for bad actors in the CIA as he travels across Europe. The Amateur was a nut-and-bolts thriller: it wasn’t fancy and far from revolutionary, but it gets the job done. It came out after the release of Black Bag, and both films appealed to a similar audience of slightly older cinema-goers. The Amateur was helmed by James Hawes, a seasoned TV director, including episodes of Slow Horses, so he knows how to craft a spy-thriller. Although, as an action director, Hawes has a long way to go since it was obvious when stunt doubles were used for the fight scenes. 

The Amateur did feel like a throwback to thrillers from the early-to-mid noughties, whilst modernising certain aspects. The original novel was published in 1980, so the new film had to update the politics and technology. Charlie was a computing genius who communicated through encrypted devices, could hack into any system like security cameras, and used modern technology like 3D modelling. 

The Amateur felt like a cross between The Recruit and The Bourne Trilogy. The Recruit was a workmanlike thriller from 2003 that showed a young man training to be a CIA agent. The Bourne comparison came about due to the corrupt elements within the CIA, and Holt McCallany was in the same role as Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, and David Strathairn, men hunting a rogue agent. Like the Bourne films, there was a lot of monitor watching and searching everywhere Charlie has visited for clues. Scott Z. Burns, one of the writers of The Bourne Ultimatum, did uncredited rewrites for The Amateur. 

The Amateur was a slow burn. It took its time as it showed Charlie being trained, the CIA investigation, and Charlie going on his manhunt. The film made a point that Charlie was not a superspy like James Bond, Jason Bourne, or Ethan Hunt. There was a scene like Skyfall that showed that Charlie couldn’t aim a gun no matter how much he tried. Charlie’s first fight was with a woman having an asthma attack, in a scene that would annoy the Critical Drinker. Charlie had to use his knowledge, invention, and creativity to carry out his assassinations, acting like Agent 47 from the Hitman games. Charlie had to do this to emotionally distance himself so he could kill other people, and there was an emphasis on Charlie’s psychological torment. 

Rami Malik has proven himself as an actor on film and TV and earned acclaim and awards for it. In The Amateur, Malek played his role as someone who might be on the spectrum. Charlie was an intelligent, if socially awkward man who said he liked solving puzzles and was determined and focused. He was able to maintain relationships, as shown by him being happily married, and he has a sense of empathy as shown through his interactions with a character in Istanbul. Charlie didn’t fall into the savant trap that has appeared in other films. Laurence Fishbourne was also a highlight in the film as Charlie’s mentor who developed a begrudging respect for the computer programmer. 

For fans of spy-thrillers, The Amateur does scratch an itch. It was a competently made film that had been lacking for adults, even if it's an overly familiar story and plot points.