When me and my family were cooped up in my mom’s place during the first 16-ish months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we watched so many post-1990 courtroom dramas and espionage thrillers. These were some of my mom’s favorite genres, so they were often the go-to choice for movie nights. Enemy of the State, The Gingerbread Man, The Hunted, we checked them all out. If it had existed back then, the new Rami Malek thriller The Amateur probably would’ve made it into our rotation. An old-school motion picture, the stripped-down serious nature of this James Hawes directorial effort is a bit of a welcome respite from the influx of wacky Deadpool clones clogging up theaters in 2025’s first three months.
Unfortunately, The Amateur has its own unique shortcomings to “compensate” for the lack of irritating quips.
Based on Robert Littell's book of the same name, Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli's screenplay begins with Charles Heller's (Rami Malek) tranquil domestic life. He's a CIA cryptographer, the ultimate tech guy for the agency. His wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), is practically perfect in every way. A few days after she travels to London for work, Heller's higher-ups, like CIA Deputy Director Alex Moore (Holt McCallany), deliver grave news: Rachel's dead A quartet of terrorists shot her during an attack. A profoundly wounded Heller can't move on with his life. Naturally, he then asks/blackmails Moore and his colleagues for help. He wants to train as an assassin so he can hunt down his wife's murderers.
Heller certainly doesn't look like Jason Statham or Charles Bronsan. He doesn't have a killer's instinct. Training under Colonel Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) just reinforces that reality. Heller can't shoot a gun to save his life. How could he take out human beings? However, once Heller goes rogue and travels to Europe to carry out his vengeance, he begins to use his wits, not fists, to slaughter his prey. Yes, this guy’s an “amateur” (hey, that’s the name of the movie!) But don’t count him out. Especially if you’re one of the people who killed his wife.
Midway through The Amateur, Heller is woken up in the middle of the night by a person who also lost their partner. This soul notes that they don’t want anything sexual or monetary from Heller, they simply want to feel what it’s like to sleep next to a human being again. This tender moment wrings potency out of two souls struggling with the unending pain of loss. It’s a welcome sight that Nolan and Spinelli’s more restrained aesthetic and pacing allows time for such low-key moments between Amateur characters. Plus, it’s nice that one of these vengeful thriller movies carves out time to emphasize that post-loss catharsis can come from more than just straightforward revenge.
The Amateur works best when it’s leaning into the vulnerabilities of its principal character. I could feel my fists clenching during a great early scene of Heller frantically trying to pick a lock while watching a helpful YouTube tutorial on the task. This man’s inexperience is so clear and the stakes of the situation are similarly apparent. The Amateur’s scope also happily stays in check. Heller’s revenge mission never intersects with some larger race to save the world. Instead, the focus remains on him and the deceitful CIA shenanigans his superiors are engaged in. Streamlining the screenplay like that is a welcome sight that keeps this title light on its feet.
Unfortunately, emphasizing Heller’s inexperience and quieter meditations on the cost of vengeful violence exist in a movie at war with itself. The Amateur wants to be both an Alan J. Pakula feature and a rip-roaring Tom Clancy adventure. One minute, Colonel Henderson is telling Heller in no uncertain terms that cost of taking a man’s life is something you never get over. The next, Heller dispatches baddies with his brains and machinery in elaborate set pieces executed with propulsive editing and music. Movies from directors like Miklós Jancsó or Martin Scorsese execute violent scenes with clinical, aloof camerawork underscoring the grisly pointlessness of war or vengeance. Amateur’s pageantry, meanwhile, goes in the opposite direction while undercutting its quieter moments.
Similarly caught between conflicting impulses is Hawes and cinematographer Martin Ruthe's visual scheme. On the one hand, the pair often opt for wide shots that help make The Amateur look different than a typical Hulu or Netflix title. Shots of Heller existing on the far side (either right or left) of a frame while mourning in his home or at a beachside domicile especially utilize vast empty space well. On the other hand, conversations between characters are framed so stagnantly. No meaningful camera movement or cool split-diopter shots to break up the monotony of lengthy exchanges. Meanwhile, any hand-to-hand combat or car chase sequences look downright terrible with their choppy editing and disorienting camerawork. Even when The Amateur tries to be straightforward firearm-heavy entertainment, its most ramshackle imagery ensures audiences won’t be invested in what’s happening on-screen.
Most of The Amateur is just middle-of-the-road fare that rarely insults viewers but is equally hesitant to reward them with something spectacular. There are some good touches in here, like having Michael Stuhlbarg play main baddie Sean Schiller. Not only is this actor always a welcome sight on the big screen, but it's an inspired touch to pair Rami Malek's deeply human protagonist with an equally down-to-Earth final boss. Bombastic composer Volker Bertelmann, meanwhile, imbues the proceedings with compositions evoking the sounds of typical Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross scores. Bertelmann's tracks don't come anywhere close to the heights of Reznor & Ross film score creations "Hand Covers Bruise" or "Challengers: Match Point", of course. However, at least they have some flashes of personality.
Unfortunately, too much of The Amateur is more admirable in concept than execution. It’s just one of those movies that pales in comparison to its cinematic ancestors. The world of spy thrillers is dense. Trust me, my family watched most of them a few years back. Many of those titles are better than this. Even Malek’s lead performance, though effective at conveying devastated loss, is often too reminiscent of his earlier work as an actor. It’s nice to see one of these 2000s spy thrillers back on the big screen. If only The Amateur really crackled like the best of its kin.