The Amateur
review by Bobby Blakey
Rami Malek has taken on a great variety of roles since stepping out of the series Mr. Robot and onto the big screen with films like his Oscar turn in Bohemian Rhapsody and villainous role in the James Bond film No Time To Die. Now he is returning to the world of espionage in his latest film The Amateur co-starring Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Adrian Martinez, and Danny Sapani from One Life director James Hawes. Could this film offer up something worthy of the genre or will it be revenge not worth witnessing?
The Amateur follows Charlie Heller, a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder for the CIA working out of a basement office at headquarters in Langley whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to take action, he takes matters into his own hands, embarking on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible, his intelligence serving as the ultimate weapon for eluding his pursuers and achieving his revenge.
At first glance you don’t think of Malek so much as an action star, but the idea behind his character works perfectly to create a new kind of spy lead. Instead of tons of shootouts and fight sequences this is a cerebral mission and execution of vengeance and for the most part delivers. Going into it I expected a lot more action I guess just the nature of this genre, but this film plays more into the espionage aspect and makes for a different but well executed experience than I had expected.
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Malek is great in the role of bringing an awkward innocence that works for this character. His initial happy life and love his job falls apart, making him do the same. They tend to take these kinds of stories into some unstoppable killing machine, but here he plots out the revenge to solve the case of who was behind it and exact it through his strengths in intelligence and technology. It brings some fun twists and even kills throughout, but with a slower pace. This might put some off expecting a full-on action film but know its playing a deeper game.
The climax of the film was a bit of a let down as it was predictable and anti-climactic. It’s not bad or anything, I just think with all the build up in the story that by the time we get there you want something more satisfying than what it goes with. It’s more of a real-world direction than the stylized Hollywood direction these films go with and works. I just wanted more.
Decide for yourself and check out The Amateur available now on digital and then on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on July 8th from 20th Century Studios.