The Amateur was a movie that 20th Century Studios showed off last year at CinemaCon 2024. The movie intrigued me because it was a turn from Rami Malek that wasn’t his normal kind of role. Yes, he’s starred in a Bond movie as the villain (in a terrifying turn), but this felt like when Matt Damon did Jason Bourne to me. Instead of Bourne, we get a different kind of CIA/spy thriller. The Amateur comes from director James Hawes and writers Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli. It’s based on the novel by Robert LIttell of the same name. It’s also technically a remake of the 1981 film starring John Savage and Christopher Plummer.

The Amateur follows Charlie Heller, a slightly nerdy underling at the CIA in the intelligence department. His wife, Sarah (played by Rachel Brosnahan), leaves on a trip to London for business. During that time, Charlie finds out some dirty goings-on with the deputy director (played by Holt McCallany) of the CIA. Tragedy strikes when terrorists on the run in London murder Sarah. Charlie goes to his bosses to get justice for his wife, and they kind of shut him down. It’s a frustrating reality of the justice system and how our agencies work. They want to get the entire terror network and not just the four people involved with the attack. Charlie stews about it for a while, and implements his plan. What is his plan?

Well, he decides to blackmail the deputy director with the files he found earlier, in exchange, Charlie gets CIA operative training. They send him to their toughest trainer, Colonel Henderson (played by Laurence Fishburne). From there, the deputy director and his partner decide to let Charlie go through with it until they can figure out if he’s bluffing with his dirt or not. That all adds several layers of tension to The Amateur. As Charlie goes on, he’s being chased officially by the CIA, unofficially by the CIA, and by the terrorists he’s hunting down.

The issues with The Amateur arise as the film goes on. There are fantastic performances across the board, but the coincidences and logical choices stand out far past the point of suspension of disbelief that comes with a movie. The coincidences between Charlie finding the exact dirt on his bosses, which also happens to do with his wife’s death. There’s also some other choices that have to do with Charlie’s quest that don’t make any sense. The terrorists are all absolute morons including the final big bad. They make choices that allow Charlie to keep going, and at a certain point, it feels like he’s getting passes.

The other thing is that we don’t get nearly enough from the best characters in the movie. Laurence Fishburne’s Henderson plays like a somewhat mentor, somewhat adversary for Charlie, but they don’t get enough time on screen together to make you feel like there’s a payoff. Fishburne is also just the most badass character in the movie, getting the best fight scene. That makes sense because Charlie is portrayed as a brainiac. He’s supposed to beat them with his mind, and he does. But there’s no real payoff to his training as a CIA operative or the setups in the early part of the film.

Jon Bernthal is also wasted in the film. His character is incredibly interesting, but he shows up twice, and in a baffling scene, his character kind of slinks away with no other mention. Outside of those things, though, The Amateur ended up surprising me. It was more Death Wish than Bourne Identity. Charlie is sickened by some of the things he’s doing. It’s nice to see a character actually show some emotion and regret to their actions.

The drama of the film takes over the spy thriller aspects, especially in the latter stages of the film. It’s more about Charlie coming to terms with the loss of his wife and how we overcome grief in that way. The Amateur might not be the perfect spy thriller, and some of the logical choices made in the film might be a bit coincidental, but it still provides a nice ride to take as an audience.

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