The Amateur (2025)

Although this revenge thriller has a great concept, the plot doesn’t really do anything with it.  Rami Malek keeps things watchable, but the rest of the cast don’t get much to do, and the plot holes undermine any real sense of satisfaction in the final act.

Premise:  After his wife is killed during a terrorist attack in London, CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) blackmails his CIA superiors into being given the training and resources he needs to hunt down and kill his wife’s murderers.

Review:

The central concept behind The Amateur is a solid one – what if there was a revenge thriller where the main character wasn’t a one-man-army, but instead was a sheltered IT genius who works in the CIA’s basement and who’s never seen any action in the field?  It’s an intriguing proposition, and The Amateur works best when it focuses on that core premise, like during Charlie Heller’s (Rami Malek) training at the hands of CIA veteran Robert "Hendo" Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), or when Charlie finally comes face-to-face with the first of his targets.

But there’s too much other nonsense in this film that distracts from the simplicity of its premise, a lot of which feels like the product of poor writing.  Without getting into spoiler specifics, Charlie is able to blackmail his superiors at the CIA into letting him go after his wife’s killers because – completely coincidentally – some highly incriminating classified files fall into his lap on the same day as his wife’s murder.  You might expect to learn later on in the movie that these two events were connected – but no, Charlie just happened to be given the incriminating files on the same day that his wife just happens to the be victim of an entirely unconnected terrorist attack.

“…casts Rachel Brosnahan & Jon Bernthal and then does nothing with them…”

That’s just one example of the film’s weak script – but the film’s entire third act feels like it makes little sense in the context of what’s come before it, and as a result, the ending feels hugely underwhelming (if not outright frustrating).  Then there’s the cast – why cast talented actors like Rachel Brosnahan and Jon Bernthal if you’re not going to do anything with them? Rachel Brosnahan appears in two short scenes as Charlie’s wife, Sarah, but gets next to nothing to do (with maybe a dozen lines of dialogue, if that) before she’s killed offscreen, and after that we only see her in CCTV footage and as Charlie’s hallucinations (which aren’t even character-developing flashbacks).  But somehow, Jon Bernthal gets even less to do, appearing in two short scenes that add absolutely nothing to the film (you could literally cut both his scenes out and it would make no difference at all to any of the plot or character development points).

Laurence Fishburne at least gets to have a bit of fun as Hendo during the training sequences in the first act, but as the film moves on, his character is rapidly sidelined.  There was the potential to see how his character could have expanded and developed in interesting (and possibly conflicted) ways as his “student”, Charlie, finally makes his way into the field, but the script doesn’t really give Hendo much to do after Charlie leaves training, other than a couple of brief scenes.  I’ve not read the novel on which this movie is based, but I understand there was a previous 1981 movie adaptation that (from what I’ve read) not only gave its equivalent of Hendo more to do, but which also didn’t have as many plot holes and inconsistences as this version does.

“…a muddled, missed opportunity…”

Sadly, in this version no one other than Charlie Heller is really given much of a storyline or character (although Caitríona Balfe does make an impression as a fellow “outsider” in the intelligence community), and the plot itself feels like the script definitely needed further work to tie up loose ends, fix plot inconsistencies, work in some more character development and motivations – and come up with a less jarring ending.  Tonally, it feels like The Amateur had aspirations to be the next The Bourne Identity, but it’s not even close to being in the same league.

All that said, The Amateur is not an unenjoyable viewing experience, and it can certainly help to pass a couple of hours if you need it to, mainly thanks to Rami Malek’s central performance.  But equally, if you don’t see The Amateur, you’re really not missing out on anything, and my overriding memory from this movie is that it’s a muddled, missed opportunity that squanders the talents of those involved.