As a fan of spy thrillers including the Bond, Bourne and Mission: Impossible franchises, I wanted to enjoy The Amateur.  The cast includes the likeable Rami Malek and Laurence Fishburne, and the source material is a novel authored by Robert Littell, a “he’d have seen a few things” journalist who worked as a foreign correspondent for Newsweek during the 1960s.  As a footnote, a Canadian adaptation was released in 1981 starring John Savage and Christopher Plummer but didn’t do much at the box-office.

Sadly, this 2025 version lacks credibility, and this will make it difficult for audiences to buy into the drama and emotion.  It begins with a top-notch CIA cryptographer, Charles Heller (Malek), learning his wife (Brosnahan) has been murdered by terrorists while attending a business conference in London.  Heller uses CIA intel to identify the suspects and takes the information to his superior (McCallany).  The bigwigs don’t want him working the case, rightly so given the conflict of interest, but Heller uses blackmail to get his wish.  It’s not long before he’s travelling to Europe on a false passport and hunting his wife’s killers.

The Amateur is the kind of movie where characters, depending on what is needed to prolong the narrative, are either incredibly smart or incredibly dumb.  There’s no denying Heller is a shrewd computer whizz but the fact he could be trained for a few hours and then become a field operative with the talents to take down renowned terrorists… yeah, I’m not so sure.  A scene where he picks the lock at a quiet apartment building while getting instructions from a YouTube video playing at full volume – it’s laughable stuff. 

Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix) as a fellow CIA operative and Caitríona Balfe (Belfast) as a helpful source add a splash of interest with their supporting roles.  Their motivations are uneven (Fishburne is an assassin one minute and then best friends the next) but that’s more an issue with the script as opposed to their decent performances.  I was less impressed with Oscar winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) who struggles as the film’s protagonist.  I didn’t believe he was smart/lucky enough to pull off some his elaborate plans.

There’s also something off-putting about Heller’s blind rage in avenging his wife’s killers and portraying him as the simplistic hero.  The CIA we see within the film is rife with corruption and while that’s a convenient plot point to allow Heller to “go rogue”, it’s a shame the film doesn’t ask moral questions of the character and whether his protocol-ignoring actions are the right ones.  Is this how all CIA agents should act in the same situation?

Unable to be redeemed by a big finale (it’s weak), The Amateur is trying too hard to be cool.