The Amateur is a Hollywood action thriller that was released in cinemas across the world on April 11th 2025. Written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, and Directed by James Hawes, it has a runtime of 2 hours and 4 minutes.
The film was based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, which was previously adapted into a Canadian film. It follows Charlie, a soft-willed CIA employee who’s blissful life is disrupted by the murder of his wife, and in turns goes on a worldwide manhunt for the culprits.
Premise
We are first introduced to Charlie Heller, who is fixing up an old Cessna plane—a gift from his wife, Sarah, who is preparing to fly to London for a business conference. Sarah offers Charlie the opportunity to travel with her, but he declines, citing work as his reason for staying. They exchange loving goodbyes and head to their respective destinations.
At work in the CIA’s Decryption and Analysis division, Charlie is clearly undervalued, practically invisible and pretty much taken for granted—as is shown by his acquaintance with a field agent known as “the Bear”. He also holds a friendly but professional relationship with an anonymous informant called “Inquiline.”
After a check-in call from Sarah to assure him of her safe arrival in London, Inquiline provides secret files that expose Charlie’s boss, Alex Moore, head of the Special Activities Center, for covering up politically-driven drone strikes as terrorist suicide bombings. Overwhelmed by the horror of such information, Charlie closes the files and attempts to act normal. Later that evening as he settles in bed for the night, he attempts to call Sarah again but is left on voicemail.
The following morning, Charlie is then called in by CIA Director Samantha O’Brien, who delivers devastating news: Sarah has been killed in a terrorist attack.
Charlie is understandably devastated, unable to function for a while. But his grief quickly turns to rage and he begins his own investigation. He discovers that after a failed arms deal, four attackers took hostages and killed Sarah before fleeing. Charlie identifies them: Belarusian criminal Mishka Blazhic, South African ex-soldier Ellish, former Armenian intelligence agent Gretchen Frank, and the leader—Horst Schiller, who personally killed Sarah.
Charlie relays this information to Moore and his deputy Caleb, who claim they are already working to dismantle Schiller’s group, but after too many delays and stalling/distraction tactics, Charlie doesn’t trust them. Desperate, he confronts Moore with evidence that his orders led to hundreds of civilian and ally deaths– the files that Inquiline had revealed to him earlier. Charlie threatens to go public unless he’s given the means to pursue the killers himself. This includes funds, a fake identity, and private training in weapons and combat.
Charlie is sent to Camp Peary for training with Col. Robert Henderson, where he doesn’t make much progress. His timid and seemingly weak nature makes him hesitant with weapons. However he shows an almost natural skill in bomb-making. Still, Henderson believes Charlie isn’t cut out to kill.
The rest of the movie depicts an intense, high speed, bone chilling manhunt across the globe as Charlie simultaneously races to avenge his wife and escape Moore’s consistent attempts to eliminate him, all the while dealing with his own soft, non-killer nature.
Cast and Performances
- Rami Malek as Charles “Charlie” Heller
- Laurence Fishburne as Robert “Hendo” Henderson
- Caitríona Balfe as Davies
- Holt McCallany as CIA Deputy Director Alex Moore
- Rachel Brosnahan as Sarah Heller
- Danny Sapani as Caleb Horowitz
In terms of both characters and actors, the only element that stood out to me was Rami Malek and his character, Charlie. And while I understand that that is essentially the point as he is literally the main character, it’s a bit off-putting to see how one character shines and everything else is just grey. It causes a sort of imbalance across the screen.
That aside, Charlie’s character is wonderful, especially as we watch him face the ultimate enemy: his own mind, his heart that is heavy with grief and vengeance, yet his inability to actually take that drastic step with his own two hands. It is a contradiction that adds such a complex factor to the character and most times you can’t tell whether to root for him or aggressively facepalm (my head still hurts).
Charlie feels the same way too, apparently, as sometimes his guilt and self hatred and fear eat him alive while other times, he believes in himself so fiercely that you’d think he could accomplish the impossible.
What I Liked About The Amateur
The cliche of everything except the main character.
Wait. Hear me out.
This film has all the fun clichés. Revenge for the loss of a loved one, check. Training montage with a professionally fond relationship between teacher and student (before AND after he tried to kill him), check. Corrupt government official who’s the “real villain”, check. The most random and over-the-top explosions you’ve ever seen, check.
But…
The main character isn’t your typical “weak nerd turns killing machine/emotionless psychopath to avenge his girl” character. He still actively holds on to his apprehensions about taking a person’s life. But he’s not the “all lives are sacred” pacifist preacher either, especially after taking as many losses as he did.
Charlie actively wars over this internally and it manifests in the way he chooses to get rid of his enemies and how he struggles afterwards. And I think it’s so interesting how we had all these clichés and ironically, the main character is the one who breaks the norm, who is the sore thumb with all these contradictions. I love how they didn’t try to turn him into an immediate badass either. He was still soft natured, albeit with a bit of an edge now.
What I Didn’t Like
First, the movie was too long. 2 hours is a long time to spend on a non-superhero movie. Also, I’m going back to the dullness of the other characters in comparison to the main character. A strong lead with relatively average support characters only pushes the viewers to focus on the main character alone, which isn’t good or fair to the others.
Final Thoughts on The Amateur
This was an okay movie, average at best. Like I said before, nothing really stood out to me aside from the main character. The others felt….two dimensional. The action scenes were fun though.
I rate The Amateur: 2.5 out of 5.
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