The Amateur – Film Review

In James Hawes’ The Amateur, a cerebral cryptographer transforms into a grief-stricken vigilante, setting off a bloody chain of retribution within the covert corridors of the CIA. Based on Robert Littell’s 1981 novel—previously adapted the same year into a Canadian film—this reimagining attempts to blend psychological drama with gritty action. The result is a serviceable, albeit inconsistent, espionage thriller buoyed by strong performances and striking visual direction, even as it stumbles under the weight of its genre aspirations and narrative contrivances.

Rami Malek stars as Charles “Charlie” Heller, a CIA codebreaker with little interest in fieldwork or confrontation—until his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan, impactful in limited screen time) is killed in a terrorist bombing in London. Heller’s grief is immediate, raw, and disruptive. He watches, helplessly, as internal bureaucratic gridlock and geopolitical calculus prevent the Agency from pursuing those responsible. When Charlie realizes that justice will not come through official channels, he takes matters into his own hands—first by blackmailing the CIA with classified files, then by coercing them into training him as a field operative.

From there, The Amateur launches into familiar spy-thriller territory: foreign cities bathed in shadow, knife-edge surveillance games, and brutal assassinations carried out in tight alleyways and opulent embassies. But Hawes, in his second feature after a career directing prestige television (Slow Horses, Black Mirror), maintains a more restrained and thoughtful tone than the high-octane genre often suggests. The film doesn’t just pose the question of what grief can do to a man—it fixates on it, treating Charlie’s emotional deterioration as much a part of the narrative arc as his tactical progress.

Malek’s performance is central to this balancing act. There’s a quiet desperation beneath his measured line delivery, a nervous tension in his posture. Charlie isn’t a natural killer, nor is he ever truly comfortable in the role of action hero. In fact, the film’s most effective sequences highlight his unpreparedness—his hesitations, stumbles, and panic attacks contrast sharply with the cool professionalism of those around him. In one standout early mission, Charlie botches an attempted tail, and the camera lingers on his face as he processes just how much danger he’s in. These moments make The Amateur more psychologically engaging than most entries in its genre.

However, the script, credited to Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) and Gary Spinelli (American Made), often struggles to integrate character nuance with the expected beats of a spy thriller. The transformation from desk jockey to lone assassin is neither as plausible nor as compelling as the filmmakers intend. While the film takes pains to emphasize Charlie’s vulnerabilities, it also expects us to buy his evolution into a capable operative over the course of a training montage and a few mentorship scenes with Robert Henderson (a reliably strong Laurence Fishburne, who exudes warmth and gravitas). There’s cognitive dissonance in watching Charlie dispatch trained killers with near-Bourne precision while still trembling from PTSD flashbacks.

The supporting cast helps carry the emotional and thematic weight. Caitríona Balfe is enigmatic as Inquiline Davies, whose cold pragmatism plays well against Charlie’s moral urgency. Michael Stuhlbarg turns in a quietly menacing performance as Sean Schiller, whose interactions with Charlie offer some of the film’s most layered dialogue—conversations that hint at a broader ethical rot within the intelligence community. Julianne Nicholson, though underused, adds gravitas in her brief scenes, serving as a reminder of the world Charlie is leaving behind.

Cinematographer Martin Ruhe gives the film a sleek, muted palette that complements its somber tone. London and Prague become ghostly playgrounds for covert warfare—rain-slicked streets, dimly lit corridors, and glass-walled offices that seem designed to reflect both the characters’ fractured loyalties and their isolation. The action scenes, when they do arrive, are efficient and brutal, grounded more in desperation than spectacle. One late-film set piece in a snow-covered forest has an eerie beauty that momentarily elevates the film into something more mythic.

Despite these strengths, the pacing falters in the second act. As Charlie closes in on his targets, the film becomes less interested in exploring the consequences of vengeance and more concerned with completing a familiar narrative arc. Emotional beats are hurried, motivations blur, and a subplot involving a potential mole within the agency feels underdeveloped. There’s also a tonal inconsistency that plagues the film throughout—it wants to be a character-driven meditation on loss, but also a stylish revenge thriller, and it never fully reconciles these ambitions.

What’s perhaps most frustrating is that The Amateur flirts with deeper thematic territory—what it means to seek justice through violence, how institutions co-opt grief, and the cost of personal vendettas—but often retreats into formula just as it nears something profound. The film seems most alive when it’s grounded in psychological tension, and least effective when it leans into action-movie shorthand. One can’t help but wish it had committed more fully to the existential questions it raises in its first act.

In the end, The Amateur is a solid if unspectacular addition to the modern spy thriller canon. Rami Malek gives a committed, often affecting performance that helps elevate the material, and James Hawes’ direction adds polish and restraint. But the film is ultimately caught between being a moody character study and a familiar revenge narrative, never fully excelling at either. It’s a story of a man pushed to the edge—but its most daring moments come when it lets that man falter, not when it pretends he’s a perfect avenger.

A somber, well-acted espionage tale that’s as much about grief as it is about guns, The Amateur offers intrigue and introspection but can’t quite break free of its genre’s limitations. Solid viewing for spy thriller fans looking for something a little more grounded—just don’t expect it to rewrite the playbook.