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The Amateur
谍网追凶

MOVIE

Format(s) Available

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Opening Date

10 Apr 2025

Rating

PG13 Some Violence

些许暴力画面

Runtime

122 mins

Language

English with English & Chinese subtitles

Genre

Action, Thriller

Director

James Hawes

Cast

Rami Malek, Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Adrian Martinez, Danny Sapani, Laurence Fishburne

Synopsis

Charlie Heller (Malek) is 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.

Reviews

By InCinemas 09 Apr 2025

A classy display of brains over brawn.

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The Amateur is a spy thriller directed by James Hawes, from a screenplay by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli. It is the second film adaptation based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell and stars Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, and Laurence Fishburne.

CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller (Malek) loses his wife Sarah (Brosnahan) in a terrorist attack in London. He convinces the agency to provide him field training to prepare himself for revenge. This becomes a globe-trotting mission when Charlie goes rogue in search of his wife’s killer(s) while the CIA attempt to neutralise him for leaving destruction in his wake.

The Amateur is far from being an amateur spy thriller. It has the standard makings of espionage films we’re more than familiar with. But what sets it apart from just the usual fare of shootouts and chases is its off-beat choice for a protagonist (and it leaning more towards being a thriller than a full-fledged spy flick). It’s also more talkier for a film of its genre like Black Bag before it.

Now we’ve seen a fair share of highly skilled individuals taking sole action to get revenge on those who’ve wronged them (Liam Neeson’s filmography is enough proof of this), but it’s not always we get a protagonist whose survival skills are 100% intellect and zero physicality. Charlie can’t fire a gun right even if his life depended on it. He may be driven to kill the people who murdered his wife but don’t expect him to do it at close range.

Malek, whose role here resembles that of his Mr Robot character he spent 4 seasons perfecting, brings the perfect amount of impassiveness to the eccentric Charlie (except when it comes to Sarah–he’s very emotive then). His unique set of skills and unwavering devotion to his wife makes it easy for us to root for the underdog. Even the CIA operative Robert Henderson assigned to train him and later track him down seems to have a soft spot for him (a commanding Laurence in a very apt Morpheus-like mentor role).

Apart from Fishburne and Balfe (who plays informant Inquiline who aides Charlie in is quest), we can’t help but feel the rest of the supporting cast relegated to glorified cameos. McCallany does get decent runtime but he’s sorely underused as shouty dirty CIA Deputy Director Moore, though it’s nothing compared to Bernthal (the film’s most capable physical asset) who pops in for conversational scenes as if he merely stumbled across the film set by accident.

Despite its 2-hour long runtime, one might feel The Amateur would’ve worked better as a episodic miniseries instead where its characters could be granted more time for development. It’s a slowburn before the action starts but rest assured they’re still worth waiting for.
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