Hey everybody and welcome to a brand new review! For this one, I will be taking a look at a brand new spy thriller that is the rare non big IP play from 20th Century Studios, The Amateur. Okay technically it is based off of a novel by Robert Littell that was also already adapted to film in 1981, but for the majority of audiences, this is a new to you sell. I’ve been interested in this one for a good bit as I am a huge fan of anything related to the spy genre and thought this just looked like a nice old fashioned studio programmer with actors that I really enjoy. This is also noteworthy for being the first Rami Malek led feature in a while as the last time he was the lead in anything was his Oscar winning role as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (though he has had plenty of high profile roles in the likes of No Time to Die and Oppenheimer among other things). So, was this able to go above being in line with its title? Let’s jump right in and see if this Amateur has more than meets the eye!
The film follows a highly skilled CIA cryptographer named Charlie Heller who lives with his loving wife, Sarah. One day while at work, Charlie is struck with the news that Sarah was murdered while on a business trip in London, due to a terrorist attack that went down. Destroyed by the news, Charlie is distraught by the lack of progress the CIA has made in trying to take the men responsible down, even though they promise him that they are going to handle it. Tired of waiting, he decides to blackmail them into giving him the training necessary to kill these men on his own. Thus begins a quest for vengeance that will take Charlie out of his element and around the globe in order to dispatch vengeance his own way.
Like I said, I’m a sucker for these kinds of films and as someone unfamiliar with the source material I was curious to see what this had to offer. For the most part, I thought it succeeded at what it set out to do. Screenwriters, Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli do a very good job in setting things up at the beginning where we learn about Charlie, his skills, his relationship with his wife, and the inner workings of his job in an efficient manner that had me hooked. When the inciting incident occurs it manages to hit hard and I was interested in seeing how Charlie would navigate the situation. I also thought there was some compelling exploration into the moral grey area present in the CIA and what it means to be complicit in a horrible situation. It’s an interesting examination and the film is at its most compelling when exploring these ideas. Once Charlie begins his revenge spree, things do become a lot more conventional as the feature falls into a familiar rhythm of Charlie tracking down wife’s killers and dispatching of them, with scenes of the drama going down at Langley being interspliced.
It is still entertaining, especially with how Charlie isn’t exactly a skilled fighter and so has to use his own specific skills as a tech guy to take down his opponents and I liked seeing the ways he would do this. Other than those aspects, we get the usual plot elements of these kinds of stories with a government official on the run from his own agency and him having to figure out this conspiracy at play. It’s not poorly done but this stuff isn’t quite as engaging as the first act and I felt it could’ve fleshed out a lot of its themes more. It doesn’t help that the movie runs a bit longer than it needs to with the pacing feeling uneven, which makes it more frustrating how it didn’t use that time to perhaps develop certain aspects more. Plus, while I do like the way Charlie wraps up his revenge quest, I do think the ending (without giving it away) makes things a little too black and white in regard to the morality at play and I felt simplifies things a bit too in a way that makes the movie less thematically nuanced as what was set up before. Now, it all works well enough as a whole, just kind of felt like the writers were afraid to dig into the greater implications at play.
Known more for TV work on such shows like Doctor Who among others, director, James Hawes, is able handle things well here, doing a nice job capturing the vibe of an old school espionage film from the 2000s. There is a lot of jumping around in the editing, but it is still coherent and there’s just something cool about seeing a bunch of coding going on computer screens and seeing Hawes present it in an exciting way. This may not be an action packed extravaganza, but what we do get is exciting and intense while being easy to follow. Hawes also does a good job getting us into Charlie’s perspective and using visuals and moments to convey what he is feeling quite well. It’s a nice looking film courtesy of Martin Ruhe’s cinematography with some really nice looking shots of various locations around world such as Paris, Istanbul, and Madrid that make this look and feel like a big scale globe trotter. While I do question spending $60 million on a project like this, the money is on the screen as this is a polished feature. Also thought Volker Bertelmann’s score was very solid, being able to make both the sequences of intensity and the quieter, reflective moments more effective.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say he has been in nothing since the crowd pleasing Queen biopic, I will admit it is neat to see Rami Malek be the lead of a major film like this (give or take his co lead role in The Little Things) and be something of an unconventional action(?) star. He is pretty terrific here as he helps elevate the material, selling Charlie’s introvert side and intelligence extremely well and in ways that often don’t even require dialogue. He conveys the character’s simultaneous grief and rage so effectively that one immediately sympathizes with his situation. One can buy him as someone out of his element and I like how the movie explores the difficulty of just going off and doing something like this as not everything goes the way Charlie would like. His arc of going through the toll revenge takes on someone is an interesting one that I wish the film delved deeper into as when it does, Malek kills it and it gave the character a lot of depth. Plus, I don’t know if where his character ends up at the very end made the most sense given what he went through (the way in which his actual revenge quest is wrapped up notwithstanding), but it is decently handled and I do like he makes for a good protagonist on the whole.
The rest of the cast is stacked to the brim with great character actors who are always welcome additions to any project and they all do solid work despite some getting more to do than others. While she her screentime is limited given her role in the film, Rachel Brosnahan manages to make Sarah into an actual character who is different from Charlie, but cares about him greatly. The two have nice chemistry with one another which makes the inciting incident all the more tragic. On the CIA side Holt McCallany (one of my favorite cinematic tough guys) is great as CIA Deputy Director Moore, playing up both the cockiness of the characters as well as his fear that about Charlie’s knowledge. Danny Sapani serves as his more level headed partner as Supervisor Horowitz, and their plot line is definitely interesting to watch even if it loses focus as the film goes on. Julianne Nicholson also does well as the strict CIA director O’Brien, who is more than a little suspicious of Moore’s practices. Also enjoyed seeing the likes of Caitriona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jon Bernthal pop up as characters of varying significance (the former two get some good stuff to chew on, but Bernthal felt so inconsequential that I wonder why his character was even included). Stand out for me though was Laurence Fishburne as Robert Henderson, Charlie’s mentor in killing who eventually is tasked with hunting him down. He always brings his A-game and here he makes for a great, stern presence who knows his stuff and won’t hesitate to do his join (even if he isn’t fond of it at times). He has a fun mentor-mentee dynamic with Charlie that made for one of the more interesting parts of the film given their differences and he comes to learn a thing or two from Charlie.
Overall, I had a good time with The Amateur as I thought it was a solid spy thriller that mostly accomplished its mission. It’s not quite as great as it could’ve been as it runs too long, gets more conventional as it goes along, could have fleshed out certain aspects better, and it could’ve gone farther thematically. However, the first act is very strong, there’s solid intrigue throughout, I enjoyed the vibes, it’s well crafted, Rami Malek makes for a great lead, and it has a solid supporting cast. It was just nice to see a movie like this get made, especially as it feels like the kind of film 20th Century Studios used to be putting out on the regular before they got bought by Disney. Those who are fans of spy genre or just old fashioned thrillers will likely find some enjoyment here, even if it may feel familiar in places. Still, it’s a solid picture that is bound to become a syndication stable on cable networks like TNT and FX and is a good showcase of Rami Malek’s abilities as a performer.
Rating: B
Please leave your thoughts down below in the comments and see you guys later!
Review Time 