The Amateur

From 2015 to 2019, Rami Malek was the star of the thought-provoking and thrilling USA series MR. ROBOT. The show was often audacious and shocking, bolstered by Malek’s star-making turn as the brilliant, socially inept Elliot Alderson. He embodied the ultra-intelligent hacker with such finite believability, that the viewer was certain that Malek knew his way around that world. After the series ended, he accepted the formidable challenge of portraying Freddie Mercury, and that performance won him an Academy Award for Best Actor.

In the throwback thriller THE AMATEUR, Malek once again tackles the role of a man who sits behind a computer but is suddenly pushed to take action against a world that has wronged him. This time, he plays CIA decoder Charlie Heller. Armed with a 170 IQ and a propensity for puzzles, he vows revenge when his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) is taken hostage and murdered in a random attack in London. Unable to cope with the tragedy that has befallen him, he uncovers and then exploits secrets being held by his boss, Special Activities Center Director Alex Moore (the always great Holt McCallany. Threatening to go public with information that could see Moore put away for life, Heller insists that he be trained on how to become a killer, so he can exact his revenge on those who slayed his wife.

Moore reluctantly agrees (while also formulating a plan to destroy Heller) and enlists the help of Colonel Robert Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) to help Charlie transform from nerd to ninja. Roughly 10 cinematic minutes later, we know that Heller can’t shoot, but he can build a bomb. That, apparently, is good enough. He has already uncovered the identities of those who are responsible for Sarah’s demise and easily evades the CIA’s not-so-subtle detection to go battle the baddies.

THE AMATEUR has the feel of a late-90’s early-2000’s thriller. The setup is brief, the execution is rushed, and we are just supposed to believe that our hero can do anything. While I could easily buy into Malek’s Heller doing killer things with a keyboard, murder is kind of a different story. This is supposed to kind of be the point, I suppose, but with the way it unfolds in the film, it’s simply a foregone conclusion that he is going to succeed. Characters come and go with virtually no development, and, as is the case with Jon Bernthal’s character Jackson O’Brien, aren’t justified in their existence. Bernthal is fantastic as always, and his screen presence is unmatched, but that didn’t make up for the fact that I didn’t (and still don’t) understand what purpose he served.

Despite its faults, THE AMATEUR entertains throughout and keeps the viewer engaged. This is largely thanks to Malek. I loved MR. ROBOT throughout its run, and I couldn’t help but think I was getting bonus Elliot with this film. Reminiscent in skill, intelligence, and turmoil that made him such an unforgettable character throughout the series run, he makes for a very unconventional protagonist. Sure, his journey from puzzle solving geek to ruthless assassin unfolds impossibly quickly, but I guess that will happen when your wife is murdered by cold-blooded mercenaries and you’ve got nothing else to lose.

THE AMATEUR

Grade: B-

Rated: PG-13
Run Time: 2h 2min
Genre: Spy, Action, Thriller
Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Jon Bernthaly
Director: James Hawes
Writers: Robert Littell, Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli

Now streaming on Hulu.

Brian Miller