By George & Josh Bate
Lack of novelty doesn’t spell immediate disaster for a film. Plenty of movies tread familiar narrative waters and yet still stand out due to filmmaking craft, acting prowess, and more. In other terms, just because a plot has been executed before does not mean that a film with that same plot has nothing new to offer. In the case of The Amateur, a new revenge, espionage thriller starring Rami Malek, the absence of uniqueness in storytelling is accompanied by similarly indistinctive directing, action, and acting. Despite this, the 20th Century Studios release consistently engages one’s interest and demonstrates that there is still potential for routine stories to entertain, even if it doesn’t amaze.
Based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, The Amateur stars Rami Malek as Charlie Heller, a CIA cryptographer whose wife (played by Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a London terrorist act. After blackmailing his CIA bosses to receive training to become an assassin, Heller goes on a one-man mission to seek justice for his wife’s death.
The Amateur possesses an old-school quality to it. Director James Hawes’ film is the type of movie that was commonplace at theaters in the 1980s-2000s – a star-driven revenge/action movie with not much originality to offer. To see a film like this in 2025 is surprisingly refreshing. Unburdened by pretentious filmmaking or misguided attempts at awards-seeking, The Amateur plays exactly as advertised, unconcerned with charting new territory of the action or spy genres.
While welcoming in how old-school The Amateur feels, the charm of the film fades as mundanity becomes increasingly evident. The first half is strong as it effectively showcases the bond between Malek and Brosnahan’s married couple, Malek’s character’s devastation at his wife’s death, and his initial and desperate pursuit for revenge. Investment in the story and our lead character comes quickly, in large part due to a committed performance from Rami Malek. Heller’s initial shock of losing his wife turns into pure rage, which only increases upon realizing that his CIA superiors are not acting due to their conflicting priorities. All of this makes for a compelling, more slow-burn set-up for a revenge movie that heavily leans into themes and tropes of the espionage genre. Seeing Heller research his wife’s murderers using top-secret CIA technology, use some spy tricks of his own to sneak out data, and confront his CIA bosses give The Amateur a more sophisticated, Bourne-esque flavor that proves captivating.
The film also excels in its Bond-esque globe-trotting and espionage. It is nice to see Malek trade being a Bond villain in No Time to Die for what is essentially an amateur Bond or Bourne. The variety of locations around the world are beautiful and provide the film with an authenticity and grandness seldom seen in mid-sized budgeted films like this. The dual plots of Heller seeking revenge while being pursued by the CIA means there is always something going on and that our lead is never far away from danger.
Unfortunately, the film loses steam as it progresses. Clocking in at 123 minutes, The Amateur overstays its welcome by about 15 minutes, especially in a bloated second half. Heller’s systematic revenge against his wife’s murderers is executed with some intrigue, given that Heller does not use firearms to kill and instead finds more creative means, but it all becomes a bit too repetitive and predictable. By the time the film enters the final stretch of its revenge story, investment has markedly declined, making the once captivating movie feel like it occurred all too long ago. To top it all off, there is a lack of any climactic final twist to offset the mundanity of the preceding film, ultimately leaving one with the sense that they have seen this movie countless times before.
The Amateur also features and hinges on a perplexing character decision and plot element. After losing his wife, Heller, desperate for revenge, blackmails his CIA bosses into training him to be an assassin. The absurd decision from Heller in what is otherwise a very grounded film remains a head-scratcher throughout. Surely there were ways for Heller to receive firearms training other than taking the mammoth risk of blackmailing his superiors. And surely someone who is as intelligent as Heller (with a purported IQ of 170) would know that blackmailing the CIA will just make his pursuit for revenge all the more difficult. Making this decision all the more silly is the fact that the training Heller receives is comically short (both in runtime of the film and seemingly in time within the story). Laurence Fishburne’s Colonel Henderson briefly trains Malek’s Heller only to eventually tell him that he isn’t a killer and is useless with firearms. This entire aspect of The Amateur doesn’t work, despite the fact that so much of the subsequent film hinges on it.
The point about Heller not being a killer and lacking proficiency with firearms opens the door to some interesting character development, although it remains underexplored. Arguably the film’s most unique element is the fact that Heller struggles to kill with firearms and, instead, relies on more intricate and elaborate means to seek his revenge. Although this results in some creative kills (in particular one involving a pool on top of a hotel), Heller’s aversion to firearms is never taken far, nor is this idea that he isn’t actually a killer (which is certainly not true as he indeed kills quite a few people in the movie).
Come the end of The Amateur, the audience is treated to an odd scene that feels inconsistent – both in tone and in regards to a key relationship between characters. The scene feels like it was a late addition to the film intended to open the door for sequels, but the result is a strange bookend better fitting for another movie.
VERDICT: 6/10
The Amateur is an engaging, yet routine revenge thriller and espionage movie. Refreshing in that it feels like an old-school action/spy movie from the 1980s-2000s, director James Hawes’ sophomore feature gradually loses its charm as its mundanity becomes increasingly evident. A strong first half characterized by a committed performance from Rami Malek and a calculated build up to a revenge storyline makes for compelling viewing, while the innovative kills and impressive, Bond-esque globe-trotting that feature in the second half are offset by repetitive and predictable plotting. In addition to having its plot hinge on a mind-boggling character decision early on, The Amateur also fails to capitalize on the potential of its most unique element – the lead character’s lack of proficiency with firearms and subsequent reliance on intellect to enact his revenge. An out-of-place scene setting up for potential sequels rounds out a film that always retains one’s interest, even if it fails to ever amaze. Nothing is inherently wrong with films retreading familiar narrative territory, but there needs to be something more novel or of greater craft in The Amateur to move from engaging to captivating.