The Amateur launches in cinemas as a spy action film with a few new twists and turns, but fails to sustain characteristics that are intended to make it distinct.
The Amateur stars Oscar-winner Rami Malek to top bill and produce a spy action film that interestingly does not revolve around a protagonist who boasts extreme proficiency at his job similar to Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible or Jason Bourne from the Bourne series of films. This time around, the twist comes from the story where Charles Heller (Malek), an above-average decryption and analysis specialist working with the CIA, goes rogue to hunt down his wife’s killers. Heller is neither a trained field agent nor a killing machine. From this premise, the film asks the audience to root for Heller as he MacGyvers his way for his revenge. The hook is in watching Heller outsmart his adversaries by exploring clever and unorthodox means of killing his targets and living with the aftermath of his actions.
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The premise itself is promising and introduces a few new concepts that have not yet been fully fleshed out in other contemporary spy films. For instance, The Amateur is the only spy film that follows the story of an office worker, and the plot manages to weave in versions of action scenes involving a desperate office worker trying to be an assassin, minus to comedic undertone that this premise gives off. This means less gun-slinging and more sitting behind a desk. The other compelling aspect of the film is in its portrayal of vulnerability, which while not new to most protagonists in spy films, is unique in a way that it comes from his general, mostly realistic, lack of experience being a field agent and his supposed aversion to taking another person’s life. In this aspect, Malek does what he does best – being awkward, calculating, and at times seeming frail.
Malek’s performance was appropriate to his character but it certainly did not hit his potential as an Oscar-winning actor capable of captivating talent. Long-time fans of Malek will be able to find similarities between Charles Heller and Malek’s Elliot Alderson from the television series Mr. Robot. Heller is shown to be capable of decrypting data at an almost genius pace and finds patterns from people’s behavior and plans according to the perceived weaknesses of his targets – descriptions that are regrettably too close to the character of Elliot, and Malek’s extensive experience playing a confused socially awkward genius betrays him from being a more compelling character in The Amateur.
It is also unfortunate that The Amateur premieres at a time when anticipation for Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is hyping up, and also at a time when Eddie Redmayne’s spectacular The Day of the Jackal series just recently concluded. In a saturated spy film season, being merely derivative without a distinct plot or polished execution is not enough to warrant more than being regarded as yet just another spy action film to add to the list.
Score: 6/10
The Amateur opens in Philippine cinemas on April 9, 2025. Click here for more stories like this. You may also follow and subscribe to our social media accounts: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Kumu.
