THE AMATEUR (2025) review
written by: Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli (screenplay) and Robert Littel (novel)
produced by: Hutch Parker, Dan Wilson, Rami Malek, and Joel B. Michaels
directed by: James Hawes
rated: PG-13 (for some strong language and violence)
runtime: 123 min.
U.S. release date: April 11, 2025
After killing off James Bond in 2021’s “No Time to Die” (spoiler alert!), Oscar-winner Rami Malek shouldn’t be underestimated. The same can be said for the character he plays in his latest role. His turn as a Bond villain landed him the lead in the new espionage thriller, “The Amateur,” the second feature from British director James Hawes after “One Life,” a biographical drama starring Anthony Hopkins released in 2023. The screenplay by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli is the second time Robert Littell’s Cold War-influenced spy novel of the same name was adapted for the big screen after John Savage played the titular unassuming threat in 1981. This modern-day update has technology that the source material never had while maintaining its straightforward revenge plot.
Malik plays Charlie Heller, a brilliant albeit deeply introverted CIA cryptographer working out of Langley’s basement office. He and his photographer wife, Sarah Horowitz (Rachel Brosnahan), reside in a beautiful secluded house. As the film opens, he says “goodbye” as she sets off for work in London. She wants him to join her, but Charlie is committed to work. While it seems like he’s ultra-committed to his job, there are hints at possible phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or any disruption of his meticulous daily schedule.
Charlie’s colleagues, like Esther (Tiffany Gray) and Carlos (Adrian Martinez) are probably just as brilliant in their own ways, but they’re definitely more extroverted. He’s pals with a seasoned field agent Jackson “The Bear” O’Brien (a shaggy Jon Bernthal), but only because Charlie has saved his life during an assignment with his “guy in the chair” prowess.
On the same morning that Sarah leaves for London, Charlie makes a discovery at work that implicates his boss, CIA Deputy Director Alex Moore (Holt McCallany) and head of the Special Activities Center (SAC), of being involved in taking out Middle East targets with drones under the guise of suicide bombers. It’s highly doubtful that his boss, Samantha O’Brien (an always welcome Julianne Nicholson), is privy to such activity. Not long after learning this information, Charlie finds Director Moore in his office to deliver the tragic news that his wife has been killed during a sudden terrorist attack at her London hotel.
Moore and his associate offer a distraught Charlie their condolences and assure him they will keep him abreast of the investigation into his wife’s murder. This is an insufficient response to Charlie, and he requests to be assigned to track down his wife’s killers. Moore gets a good laugh at that, but when Charlie responds with a blackmail threat unless he is given sufficient training to prepare him to be a covert lethal weapon, along with an alias and a ton of money, Moore reluctantly complies. Charlie is assigned to Col. Robert Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), a tough veteran who quickly sees that Charlie doesn’t have what it takes to kill someone up close, but his resourceful intellect could come in handy in other ways.
Soon enough, Charlie is off to France as he begins his globe-trotting vigilante tour (from the nightclubs of Marseille and the hilly streets of Istanbul to a Russian shipyard – this slippery guy gets around), in which he’ll somehow manage to evade local authorities and freelance terrorists. Assisting by a once-shadowy figure, whose online code name is Inquiline (Caitríona Balfe), Charlie methodically takes out those involved in killing Sarah, using his vast tech-savvy to utilize surveillance with the ultimate goal of confronting Sean Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg in a soft-spoken German accent), the man who pulled the trigger.
While unfamiliar with the details of Littell’s novel, I’d like to think it has intricacies that make the overall story much more believable than anything seen here. It’s tough to believe that the introverted tech geek Malek portrays can enact his vengeance in such a “Final Destination” manner. He blames himself for what happened to Sarah and simmers with anger, but that doesn’t make him James Bond or Jason Bourne.
At times, Malek and director Hawes show how Charlie Heller is haunted by the acts of violence he has witnessed or committed, but he comes across as way too composed when enacting his revenge. This can especially be seen one night on a hotel rooftop, where he’s rigged the glass bottom of a swimming pool, being used privately by one of the terrorists, to crack and pour its contents onto the ground hundreds of feet below. There’s no indication that Malek is a cold-blooded killer, and no matter what kind of hypothetical question you ask yourself when you consider what you would do if someone killed your loved one, it still feels far-fetched here.
Malek’s presence in “The Amateur” lands somewhere between unintentionally humorous and miscast despite being quite committed and earnest. There’s also a lack of chemistry between Malek and Brosnahan’s Sarah. Sure, opposites attract, but for this storyline, you really need to see the indelible connection that Charlie Heller has with his wife for us to get on board with how incensed he becomes.
The most memorable aspect of “The Amateur” is how a stellar lineup of supporting actors populates it. As a reminder, look at this list (in alphabetical order): Balfe, Bernthal, Brosnahan, Fishburne, McCallany, Nicholson, and Stuhlbarg. All these actors make this movie memorable, but none are playing the titular character.
The third act of “The Amateur” solidly serves an obvious lesson that it’s harder to kill one person in cold blood than it is to flip a fatal switch from a distance. Ultimately, I found myself one step ahead of everything that takes place in this predictable movie. At the very beginning of the movie, Charlie can be seen working on a used Cessna airplane that his wife gifted him (wait, what does she do for a living?), and you know that he’s gonna fly off in it during the last shot of the movie.
RATING: **
