REVIEW: ‘The Amateur’ Delivers A Solid Tale Of Revenge

The Amateur, directed by James Hawes with writing by Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli, and Robert Littell, follows CIA decryption specialist, Charlie Heller (Rami Malek, Oppenheimer). He spends his days living a good life, enjoying quiet time with his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and working on a plane he hopes to fly one day. However, his idyllic life comes crashing down when tragedy strikes, leaving death in its wake. When he learns the agency he’s devoted his life to has no interest in capturing the perpetrators, he takes it upon himself to bring justice to them.

The Amateur gets off to a strong start. Neither wasting time nor feeling rushed, the production fluidly establishes Heller’s life, his affection for his wife, and his timid nature, allowing the core plot to get going quickly while still demonstrating why this character should be sympathized with. This strong start lays the groundwork for the central theme of the movie: Can Charlie do what he’s setting out to do, and if so, what will it cost him?

Malek does a convincing job of evolving Charlie through his performance. There is a lot of nuance and small elements that craft a convincing transformation of the character’s personality. It also helps that, while Charlie does grow into his new purpose, he’s still someone ill-prepared to do what he is attempting.

The Amateur wastes no time in establishing its story, starting hot and strong.

The conundrum of whether Charlie is capable of succeeding at his self-ordained mission is best explored through his interactions with CIA trainer Colonel Henderson (Laurence Fishburne, Transformers One). Fishburne does a great job of dispensing hard truths to Charlie with just the slightest air of sympathy. He feels for him, but he can see he’s not cut out for the kind of work he is setting himself up for, and he genuinely doesn’t want to see him get killed. Though he is one of the few.

The method Charlie implements to enable his quest for revenge adds a wrinkle to The Amateur‘s revenge plot. His 170 I.Q. keeps him from being foolish enough to think he can just go off and take out trained, hardened killers. So, he blackmails some of his CIA superiors to force them to give him the training and opportunity he needs to enact his revenge. This creates a multilayered game of cat and mouse as his old bosses chase him while he chases his targets.

How each confrontation with his wife’s killers is crafted is skillfully done. Knowing frontal assaults would never work and still being squeamish about killing someone face-to-face, Charlie concocts some brilliant plans that don’t feel overly far-fetched. Each is unique and brings a different style of implementation with them, keeping the beats of each confrontation fresh.

The Amateur also does a good job of approaching the action elements of its narrative. Since Charlie is all but incapable of hand-to-hand combat, there isn’t much here. When fists do fly, the results are intentionally ugly but effective. The cinematography does a good job of pushing the perspective into the middle of the film’s tensest moments, making it easy to get caught up in the danger.

Everything is solid until the film reaches its final act.

Despite much of Charlie’s world turning against him, he does manage to hold onto some allies. Most notable is an old contact he retains who agrees to help him. Played by Caitríona Balfe, this ally brings their loss and trauma to The Amateur’s narrative, giving Charlie a kindred spirit to bond with and showcasing how she has struggled through her own loss.

The choice to provide another emotional presence in Charlie’s world feels good at first. It spotlights what the world he’s entering does to people, further challenging his choices as he pursues his targets. Unfortunately, the emotion brought in by this thread isn’t allowed to find a good payoff.

While much of the film is well done, it fails at the worst possible moment: the end. The build-up to the moral challenges and repercussions of Charlie’s actions is unceremoniously dropped. Choices are made at the end to cement Charlie’s final decision about who he wants to be, but they are made so casually that they feel disingenuous to everything that has already played out. It just kind of happens, and then it’s over, leaving an unsatisfying conclusion.

The Amateur is a well-crafted thriller until it’s not. It delivers tension and does an excellent job of considering the strengths and shortcomings of its protagonist as it draws him through the tale. However, the failure to stick the landing leaves all the questions about who Charlie is and what he is capable of unresolved, reducing the film to just a good revenge flick when it could’ve been more.

The Amateur is now in theaters.