AMATEUR, THE
(director: James Hawes; screenwriters: Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli, based on the novel by Robert Littel; cinematographer: Martin Ruhe; editor: Jonathan Amos; music: Volker Bertelmann; cast: Rami Malek (Heller), Rachel Brosnahan (Sarah), Laurence Fishburne (Endo Henderson), Caitríona Balfe (Inquiline), Jon Bernthal (The Bear), Michael Stuhlbarg (Horst Schiller), Julianne Nicholson (CIA Director Alice O’Brien), Adrian Martinez (Carlos), Evan Milton (Slater), Danny Sapani (Caleb), Hoyt McCallany (Supervisor Moore), Tiffany Gray (Esther), Marc Rissmann (Mishka Blazhic), Joseph Millson (Lawrence Ellish), Barbara Probst (Gretchen Frank); Runtime: 123; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Hutch Parker, Dan Wilson, Rami Malek, Joel B. Michaels; 20th Century; 2025)
“A preposterous film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A vigilante revenge action pic directed by James Hawes (“One Life”). It’s co-written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, and is based on the 1981 novel by Robert Littel. That book also was the source for the 1981 Canadian movie starring John Savage and Christopher Plummer.
The nerdy 43-year-old Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) works a desk job as a data analyst for the CIA in its headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He lives on a restored farm with his corporate wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan). They are childless, but have a happy marriage.
She goes alone to London to attend for five days a conference on climate change. At a London train station, on September 12, 2024, she’s randomly taken hostage during a terrorist attack and is killed as seen on CCTV footage taken on a surveillance video.
Charlie’s request to go after the terrorists is laughed off by his bosses, the CIA director Alice O’Brien (Julianne Nicholson) and his supervisor Moore (Hoyt McCallany).
But Charlie’s determined to go after them, especially when learning the CIA has its reasons for not going after them. Somehow he mysteriously gets Endo Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), a no-nonsense retired military colonel, to train him. Charlie then goes rogue and quickly learns who the four terrorists are from the info already made public. Working with a mysterious hacker from Turkey, whose online name is Inquiline (Caitríona Balfe), he learns more about the terrorist attack. He then goes to France, Turkey, and Spain locations to track them down and assassinate them one at a time.
The leader of the group is Horst Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg). He’s the dirtbag who killed Sarah. Schiller’s connected with Russia’s KGB. Mishka Blazhic (Marc Rissmann) is a Russian, who took Sarah hostage and is brutally killed in a collapsing infinity pool. Lawrence Ellish (Joseph Millson) is South African. Gretchen Frank (Barbara Probst) is tracked down hiding in Paris.
It’s a preposterous film that might be entertaining, but it strays too far from logic for my taste.
REVIEWED ON 4/11/2025 GRADE: C
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