The Amateur
With the surge in popularity of spy thrillers, The Amateur stands out with brilliant execution of its grounded premise, wrapped in heart-thumping energy and an abundance of twists and turns. Based on the 1981 novel by Robert Littell, James Hawes updates this classic by incorporating the rapid progression of modern technology. It follows Rami Malek as CIA cryptographer and tech-genius Charlie Heller, whose wife is killed in a terrorist attack. He looks to his higher-ups in hopes of bringing her justice, only for them to turn a blind eye due to their links with the terrorists. Finding damning information from the anonymous Inquiline, he blackmails the CIA into training him and embarks on a solo mission to kill everyone involved in his wife’s death.
Charlie is not your everyday action hero: he doesn’t know how to use a gun, and his physicality is subpar. This leads him to some very interesting methods of fighting back using his expertise in technology and security. But the creative ways he assaults and kills not only highlight his ingenuity, they are also part of his character’s arc and the moral complexities he struggles with. This question of justice and revenge is underlined by his inability to harm people up close. As the bodies pile up, his elaborate methods of interrogating and killing become part of his journey in learning what it means to cross that line. Despite his questionable actions, Malek provides Charlie with a very endearing humanity that clearly defines his motivations as love.
Laurence Fishburne also has a very scarce but impactful showing as Colonel Henderson. He trains Charlie in combat and physical espionage and then is later tasked with retrieving him for the CIA. This mentor-like chemistry between Fishburne and Malek adds another layer of nuance to Charlie’s character. Their minute exchanges full of antagonism and banter are some of the more entertaining parts of the picture. The other stellar performance is by Caitríona Balfe as Inquiline. Charlie and Inquiline, similar in their intelligence and field of expertise, understand and lean on each other for comfort and support. This intimate and romantic tension between Malek and Balfe further expands Charlie’s moral conundrum and emphasises the theme of love.
The film’s visuals are fantastic; it does not hold back on using lighting and contrast to accentuate Charlie’s descent. There’s the constant use of reflective surfaces like mirrors to showcase justice and revenge as two sides of the same coin. The action sequences, the unique ways to die, and the fantastic use of framing in the cinematography to create suspense all elevate the allure of The Amateur. Still, parts of the feature’s continuity might benefit from more time and focus, working better with an episodic structure. There’s no doubt this is Hawe’s film – a TV director known for his work on series like Black Mirror and Slow Horses – because of these parts that might work very well in a TV adaptation.
Overall brilliant, The Amateur is a character-focused spy thriller that hits all of its marks. Visually stunning, with fantastic performances from its well-curated cast, it’s grounded in its themes of love and moral questions of justice versus revenge while also offering a lot of action, tension and twists to keep the audience hooked.
Mae Trumata
The Amateur is released nationwide on 11th April 2025.
Watch the trailer for The Amateur here:
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