THE AMATEUR Review: Not Bad, Rookie. Not Bad At All

Introduction

My son is old enough now (twelve) that I feel comfortable bringing him to more adult-oriented movies. Maturity is definitely not an issue with him. This is a kid who watches Titanic over and over again and doesn’t giggle or pause the movie when the boobies appear. That maturity showed up again after we watched The Amateur. His first thought was that he liked that it was a hero’s journey movie without being really obvious about it. My first thought was that I liked that I didn’t know how the movie would end, but let’s talk about his thought first.

Synopsis

The hero of our hero’s journey is CIA agent Charlie Heller (Rami Malek). He’s not a Jason Bourne or James Bond type of agent, he’s the kind of agent that sits at a desk and feeds information to the Bournes and Bonds. In fact, he doesn’t even want to be a field agent, as evidenced by his declining his wife Sarah’s (Rachel Brosnahan) invitation to join her in London for a conference. See what they did there? The hero must first be reluctant to go on the hero’s journey.

My son was impressed (by the movie) when I pointed this out to him. But, like all heroes’ journeys, Charlie is forced into action by circumstances. Charlie is informed by his director, O’Brien (Julianne Nicholson), that Sarah has been killed during a botched robbery. He immediately digs in to identify the three culprits and informs his bosses, assistant director Moore (Holt McCallany) and agent Horowitz (Danny Sapani).

Instead of taking action, the two bosses tell Charlie to be patient and to let them handle it. Immediately recognizing that he is getting brushed off, Charlie puts a plan into action to blackmail Moore and Horowitz into training him to be a field agent so he can hunt down and kill his wife’s murderers. Journey confirmed.

Discussion

On the car ride home afterwards, we fleshed out the rest of the hero’s journey rubric (I swear to you this was his idea, and I couldn’t be more proud of him). Does Charlie have a mentor? That would be Colonel Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), tasked with Charlie’s field training. Are there tests, allies, and enemies? Boy, are there ever. The initial tests are skills challenges. Charlie’s aim when firing a gun is point-blank-range or bust, but he can MacGyver the heck out of traps with his 170 IQ.

This forces him to use his wits to survive encounters with his various enemies, as well as travel to various destinations without being caught (his first destination is, you guessed it – London). Those enemies are the murderers, of course, as well as Moore and Horowitz when they realize Heller has gone rogue against them. Not to mention Henderson, who is our journey’s shapeshifter, later tasked with capturing and/or killing Charlie.

Charlie’s single ally is an intelligence source he cultivated, known as Inquiline (Catriona Balfe). As for the rest of the journey, we’ve already covered the ordeal and the reward (revenge). It’s the road back for the hero that gets us to my first thought about the movie. How does this thing end? Does Charlie complete his unlikely transition to cold-blooded assassin by killing all the murderers? Does he also kill Moore, Horowitz, and/or Henderson? Or, does he defeat them all with his wits, maintaining a bit of his humanity?

The audience wants him to get his revenge, but are we okay with the way in which he chooses to get that revenge? The possibilities were myriad, and each as likely as the others. It’s a great bit of writing that keeps the audience guessing all the way to the end.

Conclusion

Suffice it to say, my son and I were both satisfied with The Amateur. As far as spy thrillers go, it checks all the boxes. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that, also like most spy thrillers, it’s convoluted to the point where you just have to accept some conceits and but-how-did-he and wait-if-they-then-why-didn’t-they elements. Look, the CIA knew where Charlie was because they’re the CIA. Just let it go.

If this were a much less engaging film, that stuff would stick out much more. But this film takes care where it matters. For example, one particular scene that proves this, a scene with Inquiline and Charlie that displays an astounding amount of humanity, intimacy, and vulnerability. There are other good scenes as well, but I’ll keep you guessing on those.

Rating: Don’t ask for any money back because it’s a journey that even a twelve-year-old can appreciate.

The Amateur, directed by James Hawes and written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, was released nationwide on April 11, 2025.

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