The Amateur

The Amateur adopts a surefire way to engage moviegoers: It presents a character who’s smarter than everyone else onscreen. He’s always a few steps ahead of the bad guys, not to mention the audience. It helps that he’s also out for revenge; people love a good revenge story. Rami Malek brings his weird, compelling energy to the spy genre, playing Charles Heller, a CIA analyst who can access any system anywhere in the world. The movie pits Heller against a cadre of spies and mercenaries in the tradition of Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum novels. However, he’s no Jason Bourne or Jack Ryan, and he’s certainly no James Bond. Heller doesn’t get into the field much. He’s more accustomed to working five levels underground in a CIA building, hacking into security systems, decoding encrypted files, and accessing surveillance networks from a laptop. Yet, like many in the cloak-and-dagger world he inhabits, I, too, kept underestimating Heller and the movie. And just as he keeps the other characters on their toes, The Amateur kept surprising me. 

The movie is based on a 1981 book by spy novelist Robert Littell, which was adapted that same year into a watchable if unexceptional Canadian feature starring John Savage and Christopher Plummer. The new version’s screenwriters, Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, have updated the material from the Cold War to the information age, transforming Heller from a cryptographer into a systems whiz for the CIA’s Decryption & Analysis department. Quite conspicuously, Nolan and Spinelli also remove the material’s Jewishness (both Littell and his character, Heller, were Jewish). Contrasts aside, the new production is surprisingly mid-budget, the sort commentators often say never gets made anymore, yet here one is—and what a welcome treat. The Amateur is the sort of Hollywood production that dominated the 1990s and early 2000s. It’s a moderately intelligent, entertaining, star-studded yarn aimed at adults. And how refreshing that no one has a cape, a high-powered suit, or even superspy training. 

Part of what makes Heller such a compelling protagonist is how people keep underestimating him. The early scenes establish him as a risk-averse neurotic who refuses to travel. His wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), always travels but loves her husband despite his introverted tendencies. Unfortunately, there’s not much to Sarah. She’s one of those faultless movie wives who serves more as a plot device than a fully developed character, present only to give the male hero someone to avenge. But before that, Heller uncovers evidence of the CIA’s Deputy Director, Alex Moore (Holt McCallany), manipulating drone attack reports so they look like terrorist suicide bombings, covering up his illegal black ops. The next day, Sarah dies in London when an arms deal goes south and spills into the streets. One might assume Heller’s discovery had a direct connection with his wife’s death, that Moore arranged the killing, but no; it’s one of the movie’s few unbelievable coincidences.

Anyway, Heller wants revenge on Sarah’s killers, so he uses the information about Moore to demand field training to take down the four mercs responsible. Moore cannot believe Heller’s audacity in blackmailing a CIA official. Heller protects himself by arming a dead man’s switch. This will leak evidence of Moore’s illegal activities to the press unless Heller enters a code every five hours. What unfolds from here is an engaging thriller that charts how Heller remains several steps ahead of the CIA while bumbling through his revenge scheme. Moore agrees to give Heller some tactical training under Col. Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), who takes almost no time to determine that Heller isn’t a killer, at least not with a gun. And just as Moore plans a double-cross, it’s too late; Heller has already left for London, then Paris, Istanbul, Romania, and Russia, to locate his targets. Since he can’t pull a trigger, Heller deploys bombs and his computer skills. As he designed the CIA’s surveillance software and strategy, he can anticipate every countermove. 

Heller is a novice in the field, and his haphazard energy humanizes him—as does his need for a YouTube tutorial on how to pick a lock. Malek gives what might be his most substantial leading man performance to date. It’s less showy and obvious than his Oscar-winning turn in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), drawing on the actor’s strengths as a nervy, determined type. And given the techie milieu, it’s bound to be compared to his role in USA’s Mr. Robot (2015-2019). There’s also the pleasure of seeing a talented supporting cast do solid work, even if their roles prove limited. Besides the likes of Malek, McCallany, and Fishburne, Michael Stuhlbarg shows up for a memorable scene. Jon Bernthal also appears in a distractingly small role, while the great Julianne Nicholson plays Moore’s disapproving CIA boss. 

The Amateur was made by James Hawes, a television director (Doctor Who, Black Mirror, Slow Horses) whose only other feature was One Life (2023), a moving Holocaust drama. Although Hawes hardly seems suited for a Hollywood spy-thriller, his production is assured and capable. Cinematography Martin Ruhe captures the proceedings in crisp images drained of bright colors, under perpetual overcast skies that evoke the moral gray areas of this spy underworld. Jonathan Amos edits coherent chases and brief bursts of action; however, regardless of the occasional shootout or foot chase, it’s far from an action movie. The result is skillfully made and written, and its plot holes and more nonsensical aspects don’t nag at you until afterward. Even then, they’re not so bothersome

After seeing the trailer a couple of times in theaters, I thought I had The Amateur pegged. Showing too much as trailers often do—including a most impressive sequence where Heller shatters a suspended pool with one of his targets inside—this one doesn’t spoil what makes the movie so engaging. At several points, I had a guess about what was going to happen, and I guessed wrong. That’s a rare pleasure.