The Amateur: Film Review
After playing a computer whizz in Mr. Robot for four seasons until 2019, Rami Malek is back as that type of character in The Amateur.
In the spy thriller, he plays Charles Heller, who works in the decryption and analysis department of the CIA. After his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), is shot in a London terror attack, Charles is determined to track down her killers and exact justice. When his bosses refuse to take action, Charles blackmails his superiors into training him to be a field operative – learning from seasoned pro Robert (Laurence Fishburne) – before embarking on a one-man mission across Europe.
The Amateur, based on Robert Littell’s 1981 book of the same name, is an old-fashioned globe-trotting spy thriller. They really don’t make them like this anymore. Modern audiences who are used to their espionage action films being filled with shoot-outs, explosions and car chases might find this boring. While it moves quite slowly and is certainly not as exciting as a peak James Bond (for example), there is still enough to make it a solid, compelling watch.
The whole point is that Charles is not your traditional secret agent. He’s a different type of action lead. Because he’s not good with a gun, he has to use his smarts to take out the baddies or get information. This gives us some visually unique scenes, such as a confrontation at a glass swimming pool between two buildings. I find gun fights quite tiresome after a while so it was refreshing and interesting to see a variety of new ways to deal with baddies. There are still some chases, gunfire and hand-to-hand combat, but these are brief in comparison to your typical action movie.
It never advances from good to great, and I felt particularly let down by the final act. Without giving away any spoilers, suffice it to say that when your story has been building towards this one certain one-on-one, you don’t want it to feel underwhelming. Earlier confrontations felt more inventive and inspired than the climactic one.
Malek is perfectly cast in The Amateur, an old-school by-the-numbers spy thriller that wouldn’t feel about of place in the ’80s or ’90s.
In cinemas from Friday 11th April
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
