‘The Amateur’ Review: Beware Rami’s Ridiculous Revenge 

This review contains spoilers for The Amateur

The Amateur follows an awkward CIA coder named Charlie Heller (Rami Malek), whose wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), gets murdered after a Russian-French arms deal goes south in London. Devastated by this loss, Heller begs his superiors, Directors Moore & Caleb (Holt McCallany & Danny Sapini), to let him go after those responsible. Due to his meek demeanour, they reject his request until Charlie retaliates with proof of their black ops drone strikes in the Middle East that were dismissed by the media as suicide bombings. 

Moore & Caleb decide to get rid of Heller; send him to a CIA agent named Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) for training. Heller receives a passport, a gun, money, and a laughable training montage where he fails every task (except for successfully building an IED). Moore sends in an order for Henderson to execute Heller and make it look like a “training accident”. Henderson doesn’t even get the chance as Charlie is on the first flight to London seeking vengeance against his wife’s murderer.

While the setup for the film is pretty interesting, none of these characters feel fleshed out or even all that engaging to watch. We meet Sarah right as she’s leaving for London, only ever seeing her again in weak flashbacks about Rami’s aforementioned fear of heights. She’s used as a plot device, and audiences deserve better than that.  

Malek simply does not have the assets to lead a film like this, even with the premise of a socially awkward and smart CIA operative going after his killers. Rami’s performance feels almost inhuman as his eyes always look like he’s just taken LSD, as each line he delivers feels more awkward than the last. 

The problem is that the film takes itself too seriously when its lead performance feels suited for comedy. Sure, there are a couple of moments of humor, but they are few and far between in what overall feels like a desperate attempt to make Jason Bourne practically Edward Snowden and be taken seriously. 

While the characters are not fleshed out at all, the 123-minute runtime never dragged, as I was consistently entertained watching all this nonsense unfold. The film transitions to Paris, and we finally begin to see Heller dispatch the gang surrounding his wife’s killer in acts of terrorism. Charlie can’t fight at all, as when he tracks down the first gang member, he traps them in their allergy testing box and pours pollen into the ventilation system, causing his victim to break out in hives and scream in agony as he begs her to give him information on his wife’s killer’s wherabouts. After seeing the pain he is inflicting on this woman (who is not the person who shot his wife mind you) he releases her from the box like an idiot, only to get his ass mercilessly beat while he’s armed with a pistol. He chases the woman down into the streets of Paris until she is subsequently run over by a van. One down, three more to go. 

After being caught on French surveillance cameras, Henderson tracks Heller down in a tiny Parisian bar. Charlie nearly has a panic attack upon seeing his Sensei, until he gets the bright idea to go into the bathroom of a PACKED BAR and sets off an IED, exploding the establishment. Now, while the film never addresses it, it is obvious he murdered countless innocent civilians in that explosion, yet the movie transitions to the next location like nothing happened. Later in the film, Malek depressurizes a rooftop hotel pool connected by two skyscrapers, as one of the gang members swims for his life, however, it’s previously mentioned that this pool is sixteen stories high and by doing this, thousands of tons of shattered glass and water would fall onto whoever is beneath the aquatic tomb. As Heller looks down and watches the water and glass crash upon the ground, we hear countless screams offscreen. Once again, Charlie Heller has committed an act of terrorism.

Finally, Malek impersonates his wife’s killer, Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg), to lure in the final gang member with the guise that he is buying a ballistic missile from Schiller. The man quickly discovers the ruse as Heller reveals to him that he planted an IED in the missile case, blowing up the entire warehouse where the meeting was staged. 

One word I would use to describe this film is: stupid. It’s well directed, shot competently, and the score by Volker Bertelmann is not bad. However, the script is utterly atrocious as our protagonist makes nonsensical decisions the entire runtime and harms several others in his selfish plight to become Batman. The film acts like Heller is some genius when he has access to surveillance systems and can deepfake his face onto anyone in any location so he won’t be tracked, and yet he doesn’t use it until near the third act. Like, c’mon, this is my heroic mastermind?

The Amateur was written by Ken Nolan & Gary Spinelli and directed by James Hawes, the script is based on the 1981 novel of the same name. The film stars Rami Malek, Holt McCallany, Danny Sapani, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rachel Brosnahan, Julianne Nicholson, Jon Bernthal, Caitríona Balfe, and Laurence Fishburne. 

The Amateur was released in theaters and IMAX by 20th Century Studios on April 11, 2025. 

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