action, Barbara Probst, Caitriona Balfe, Danny Sapani, Holt McCallany, Jon Bernthal, Julianne Nicholson, Laurence Fishburne, Marc Rissmann, Michael Stuhlbarg, movies, Rachel Brosnahan, Rami Malek, reviews, The Amateur
April 8, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by James Hawes
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2024, in the United States, Europe and Asia, the action film “The Amateur” (based on the novel of the same name) features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A data analyst for the CIA goes on a vigilante mission to find and kill the terrorists who murdered his wife.
Culture Audience: “The Amateur” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the book on which the movie is based, and action films about espionage, terrorist attacks and vigilantism.
“The Amateur” is a vigilante movie with few surprises, but it’s not entirely formulaic. The well-paced action scenes are thrilling and complement the film’s message that intelligence can be more powerful than physical skills. The cast members give very good performances, even when some of the characters are written as fairly two-dimensional.
Directed by James Hawes and written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, “The Amateur” is based on Robert Littell’s 1981 novel of the same name. Littell and Diana Maddox co-wrote “The Amateur” movie (directed by Charles Jarrott and starring John Savage and Christopher Plummer) that was released in 1981. “The Amateur” movie released in 2025 has been updated to take place in 2024. The title character in the film is someone who works for the CIA but doesn’t have many fight skills and has to rely on his intelligence and technology skills when he goes on his revenge mission.
“The Amateur” begins by showing 43-year-old Charlie Heller (played by Rami Malek) and his wife Sarah (played by Rachel Brosnahan) at their home in Virginia, on what seems likes an ordinary day. Sarah is getting ready to go to London for five days to attend a conference on climate change and development. Charlie works as a data analyst for the CIA (whose headquarters are in Langley, Virginia), where he does a lot of deciphering of encrypted data.
Charlie and Sarah, who do not have any children together, have a stable and happy marriage. Sarah mentions to Charlie that she wishes that he could go on the trip with her. Charlie says he can’t because “There’s something I have to untangle at work.”
At his job, Charlie is a nerdy introvert who works mostly by himself. However, he has a friendly rapport with a colleague named The Bear (played by Jon Bernthal), a mysterious field agent who has mutual respect for Charlie because Charlie once helped The Bear out of a tough situation. The Bear shows up occasionally in the story but he’s not an essential character. The director of the CIA is Alice O’Brien (played by Julianne Nicholson), who runs the operation efficiently, but even she can’t prevent corruption within her ranks.
Charlie’s immediate supervisor is F. H. Moore (played by Holt McCallany), the director of the Special Activities Center (SAC), a secretive action and military operations division of the CIA. Director Moore works closely with Caleb (played by Danny Sapani), the CIA’s head of nuclear proliferation. As soon as you see Director Moore and Caleb working together, you know immediately that they’re up to no good and will be obstacles to whatever Charlie wants to do.
Charlie has been communicating with an enigmatic hacker who is currently in Istanbul. One thing that “The Amateur” doesn’t do is keep viewers guessing for a long time about the identities and motives of the characters. It’s eventually revealed that the mystery hacker is named Inquiline (played by Caitríona Balfe), and she plays a pivotal role in the story when Charlie goes on a globe-trotting quest for revenge.
His revenge motive happens on September 12, 2024, when terrorists attack at a London train station. Sarah is one of the innocent bystanders. She’s taken hostage and murdered. This attack has been recording on surveillance video.
When Charlie finds out that Sarah has been murdered, he’s understandably devastated. He goes into therapy, where he expresses survivor’s guilt and says he feels angry and useless. Charlie believes the only way justice can be achieved for Sarah’s murder is to get revenge and kill the terrorists responsible for the murder. And he wants to be the one to do it.
When he tells Director Moore and Caleb about this intention, they tell Charlie that he can’t be on this case because he’s too personally involved. Director Moore and Caleb laugh at Charlie when Charlie requests special mission training. Director Moore tells Charlie: “I don’t think you could beat a 90-year-old nun in an arm-wrestling match.”
However, in a fairly clunky part of the movie that isn’t explained very well, Charlie gets assigned someone to train him anyway. His name is Endo Henderson (played by Laurence Fishburne), a retired military colonel, who has a tough and no-nonsense attitude. Charlie finds out the identities of the four terrorists involved in the attack. And quicker than you can say “inspired by a Jason Bourne movie,” Charlie is going to various places in Europe and Asia to track down these murderers.
The four terrorists are:
- Horst Schiller (played by Michael Stuhlbarg), the leader of the group who has an apparent affiliation with Russia’s KGB and who was the one who actually murdered Sarah,
- Mishka Blazhic (played by Marc Rissmann), a Russian native who was the one who held Sarah hostage.
- Lawrence Ellish (played by Joseph Millson), who is originally from South Africa.
- Gretchen Frank (played by Barbara Probst), who is hiding out in Paris after the terrorist attack in London.
Charlie tracks down these terrorists, one by one. The movie trailer for “The Amateur” already reveals the fate of Mishka, who gets trapped in a mansion’s infinity pool that Charlie has rigged to collapse. It’s one of the most stunning visuals in the movie, which has good cinematography and editing.
“The Amateur” is not the type of film that is going to win major awards. It’s solidly entertaining but not groundbreaking. It’s not the type of spy movie where there are major twists and turns to the plot. “The Amateur” is very transparent about who the “heroes” and “villains” are but also leaves room for viewers to question and ponder the toll that vigilantism takes on the soul.
20th Century Studios will release “The Amateur” in U.S. cinemas on April 11, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on April 5, 2025.