You may not know this but The Amateur is a remake of the 1981 film of the same name. Sure, it’s probably more accurate to call it a new adaptation of the same source novel, but that’s really just splitting hairs if you ask me. The fact of the matter is that this is the second time this story has been projected on the big screen, and each version has its pros and cons. The latest, directed by James Hawes (Slow Horses) and starring Rami Malek (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and some other things) is easily the superior of the two movies, but I get the sense that the original novel may remain the best way to consume this particular story.
I say this because the concept is great, but the story, while interesting, is one that is inherently uncinematic without a fair amount of added zazz. And the type of zazz that was brewed up for the most recent adaptation (namely, throwing in a touch of Taken), doesn’t really suit the star’s certain set of skills. As such, we get a movie that is perfectly entertaining but tonally screwy, and a bit more absurd than it seems to know.
Malek plays Charlie Heller, a CIA decoder with a 170 IQ and a loving wife (Rachel Brosnahan). He’s damn good at his job. So much so that he opts to stay home and work while his wife attends a conference in London. It’s here that she’s captured and very publicly executed by a group of terrorists. Charlie is told by his superiors (Holt McCallany & Danny Sapani) that the CIA will do everything in their power to bring the killers to justice, and that Charlie should sit back and let them do their thing.
But since that wouldn’t make much of a movie, Charlie has a better idea: he wants to be trained and briefed so that he can get vengeance on his own. And with a little bit of blackmail (turns out the CIA is up to no good, whodathunk?), he gets his wish. Under the cruel tutelage of Colonel Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), Charlie is given a license to kill and a bunch of skills with which to use it. His superiors think they can take advantage of his time at training camp to cool Charlie down (or kill him if he can’t be cooled), but Charlie is already a few steps ahead of his handlers. IT’S CARNAGE TIME!
There are shades of Jack Ryan in what follows, but whereas those movies tend to have a sturdy, workmanlike quality to them, The Amateur tries, and only half-succeeds at adding more prominent stylistic markers to its TV-movie feel, and it all hinges upon the performance of Malek, a fine actor who is perfectly suited to only a portion of what Charlie needs to be. As a grieving widower and somewhat bumbling angel of vengeance, Malek’s diminutive stature and meek nature is absolutely perfect. And it’s this which gives Charlie his edge: he’s constantly underestimated by those around him. But where Malek is miscast is in Charlie’s arc from a guy who literally vomits at the thought of murder to a guy who essentially creates inescapable Saw-traps for his potential victims. The writing fails here as well: it’s hard to tell where Charlie stands on this particular journey at any given moment, and neither the script nor Malek have figured out how to show it.
Yet there’s something inherently compelling about Rami Malek — you can’t help but root for the guy! I legitimately want Charlie to succeed in his mission, but at the same time I also don’t want him to become the same corrupt force he’s lashing out against. Even if he’s not necessarily the most believable, our empathy comes easy (a feat that the original failed with its star John Savage, who gives a good performance but runs into similar issues with characterization — his equally dead eyes notwithstanding).
Brosnahan is underused, but manages to make the most of her small role. The marriage between her Sarah and Malek’s Charlie is surface level sweet, and it works to motivate the plot, but there’s a better version of this movie where we get to see a unique bond between them, thus strengthening the ensuing narrative. It could also help with Charlie’s undercooked character development.
Once the setup is out of the way and the film becomes a world-hopping cat-and-mouse adventure, The Amateur succeeds greatly. Once it gets moving (which admittedly takes some time), the intensity and suspense hit hard and don’t let up. Hawes frames the action well, which makes up for the fact that he regularly uses three cuts when one would do just nicely. But since there’s none of that godawful shaky-cam, our eye is guided exactly where it needs to be. And really, it’s hard to screw up Laurence Fishburne laying down a beating. One can only imagine how much a headbutt from that legend of a man’s legendary skull would hurt.
It’s interesting how the altered ending (relative to the original film — I can’t speak on the novel) changes the flavor of the film at large. The 1981 film plays as a diet-Pakula conspiracy thriller, complete with a real gut-punch of a final act. Hawes’ film goes for a different sort of thing, instead weaving the conspiracy elements more expressly into what comes before, rather than using them as a cruel punctuation at the end. It allows for a warmer protagonist, but does rob it of the original’s staying power (even so, the 2025 film remains the more entertaining entry overall). Don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler, but I do wonder if an ending that hewed closer to the source material was initially tested and then dropped.
I’ll have the hack into the CIA mainframe and find out…
Directed by James Hawes
Written by Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli, based on the novel by Robert Littell
Starring Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Jon Bernthal, Caitríona Balfe
Rated PG-13, 123 minutes
