The Amateur, the second film adaptation of Robert Littell’s book of the same name, doesn't deviate from the traditional revenge thriller flicks. In fact, it very much treads in well-known tropes throughout the 123-minute runtime. It never evades them, nor does it attempt anything new in the genre. It’s a classic story executed very well. One could describe it as a pure meat-and-potatoes affair. For some, that may be a deterrent, but the film is so immaculately constructed that it’s hard to label it as a disaster.
The film follows Charlie Heller (Rami Malek), an introverted CIA cryptographer who, after the senseless murder of his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), takes matters into his own hands. He goes after the people responsible for her killing, etcetera, etcetera. It's a tale as old as time. The CIA doesn’t want to get involved, but Charlie gives Deputy Director Alex Moore (Holt McCallany) and his partner Caleb (Danny Sapani) an offer they can’t refuse.
Through his contact nicknamed “Inquiline” (Caitríona Balfe), Charlie has discovered that his superiors covered up politically motivated drone strikes as suicide bombings and is willing to reveal it all to Director Samantha O’Brien (Julianne Nicholson). A caveat, however, presents itself. Charlie relents if he gets the proper training so he can personally hunt—and kill—the assailants who took Sarah’s life.
Moore has no choice but to acquiesce to his demands and enlists Colonel Robert “Hendo” Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) to train Charlie. However, once the protagonist sufficiently attains enough knowledge to fabricate weapons on his own and has enough moral and physical strength to go after his wife’s killers, he deserts Hendo and travels to Paris, where his real mission begins. This puts Moore in an even more precarious situation than before because Charlie no longer operates within the purview of the CIA. And if the director finds out about this, their cover-up activities might be revealed.
As a result, Moore tells Hendo to go after Charlie and silence him, making it a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse between our amateur, who, one by one, takes down the perpetrators in over-the-top, likely scientifically improbable ways, and foil the CIA. Breaking a swimming pool made out of “indestructible” glass via incredibly dubious, ill-defined methods seems very far-fetched, but it does act as wish fulfillment for the socially anxious. You never know who you’re truly dealing with when you’re picking on someone with little to no physical strength, but high mental capabilities that allow them to inflict massive pain upon others without even firing a weapon. And Charlie must evade Hendo’s meticulous, shadow-like movements until he reaches the man responsible for the attack that led to Sarah’s death, Horst Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg), whose whereabouts are unknown.
As alluded to at the beginning of this review, director James Hawes and screenwriters Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli don't change the material they’re adapting—it’s the most classic revenge thriller you may ever see all year. The enemies Charlie takes down increase in difficulty, a bit like a video game. The first one is a relatively easy but clumsily executed kill. The second individual is harder to track and gets even more complicated when Hendo shows up and tries to stop Charlie, and so on and so forth. These bursts of intensity lead to some well-choreographed and edited hand-to-hand combat sequences, which undoubtedly recall Paul Greengrass’s approach in capturing action with The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.
There’s a certain rhythm he nails in the edit while capturing the claustrophobia of hand-to-hand fighting, especially when Charlie is pitted in an environment that’s difficult to escape from. He makes each room feel oppressive with the weight Charlie feels while being chased by a figure who knows exactly how to tap into his weaknesses. It makes surprising moments in these action scenes even more cathartic and exciting, especially when projected on a larger-than-life IMAX screen.
It gets even grander when he stages a gunfight chase in Istanbul, where Martin Ruhe’s camera stays on the point-of-view of Charlie and Inquiline as they try to evade heavy gunfire from afar. It’s incredibly exciting and bracingly kinetic, even if we know how this scene will conclude. In fact, we know how most of the movie will play out. The thrill of The Amateur isn’t to discover a new form of filmmaking or see the espionage genre suddenly transform. It’s seeing how this introverted, socially anxious, but highly intelligent CIA operative will eventually come out of his shell and do what he thinks is right, no matter how difficult it may be.
Rami Malek Shines in The Amateur
In that regard, The Amateur succeeds very well, giving Rami Malek another day in the spotlight. Perhaps it may not be as strong as the performance he gave in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer or in the most recent James Bond film, but it contains enough dramatic heft for us to latch onto his quest for vengeance. Malek's prowess comes out in those quiet moments. For instance, when Hawes takes time to visualize how Charlie remembers Sarah, through fleeting apparitions that act as reminders of the person he loves most, that's when Malek's performance truly shines,
The movie’s only point of deficiency occurs in its half-baked political conspiracy subplot. While McCallany is as sturdy as ever as yet another deceitful figure, essentially putting his character from Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man in a political situation, the narrative threads themselves don’t get developed to their fullest extent.
Without giving anything away, the movie attempts to tie in political cover-ups to current events, but it misses the mark. The Amateur also makes the cardinal mistake of wasting both Michael Stuhlbarg and Jon Bernthal in bit parts that sadly don’t exploit the unique on-screen talents they both possess.
The two actors still make the most out of their limited screen time, but it’s hard to fully latch onto Charlie’s quest for revenge when the antagonist himself is shrouded in secrecy until its denouement, which does confront our protagonist with the conception of justice he had before facing the man who took his wife away. The ending of that particular scene may not make much sense, but it also doesn’t matter. The person whom the CIA least expected to complete this task, not only got it done, but made his mark and exposed the criminals who decided to screw his life up. Whether or not he will return to a more quiet, peaceful life in the wake of this event remains to be seen, but he at least has a fighting chance of turning a page and learning what it’s like to live again.
The Amateur is now playing in theatres.