The Amateur (2025)
There's a refreshingly old-school feel about The Amateur, even though it features a lot of modern technology. That might have something to do with it being based on a 1981 book by Robert Littell (full disclosure: this critic has not read the book). Charlie (Rami Malek) is a nerdy, awkward CIA analyst and tech whiz. One day, his wife is killed in a terrorist attack while in London on business.
Devastated and frustrated by his
superiors' evasions when it comes to catching and punishing her killers,
Charlie uses his inside knowledge to blackmail his boss (Hoyt McCallany) into
allowing him mission training to hunt and kill the perpetrators. Charlie is
trained by Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), who is decidedly unimpressed at
first with Charlie. When the bosses realize Charlie is bluffing about being
able to release the incriminating documents if he is killed, Charlie narrowly
escapes and sets off to Europe to hunt the killers.
The Amateur consistently
features good, meat-and-potatoes storytelling. Charlie does not come by the
field work easily. He makes a lot of mistakes early on and the script keeps
turning up the pressure as he has to outwit both his wife's killers and the CIA
people pursuing him (and they won't be taking Charlie back alive if they find
him).
Malek is an Oscar winner, and he brings
a necessary humanity to the role. Viewers feel his pain. Even after the body
count has piled up, when Malek is face-to-face with the lead terrorist, he
reminds viewers that the story is centered around the loss of a human being who
mattered to someone. He gets strong support from Fishburne and Michael
Stuhlbarg (as the lead terrorist).
Usual reminder: If you don't want
mid-level studio genre fare targeted at adults to be washed away entirely by
comic book and video game movies, you need to see stuff like The Amateur (or
Drop or Warfare) in theaters.
