The Amateur info:
Director: James Hawes
Writer: Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli, and Robert Littell
Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, and Laurence Fishburne
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. In typical spring fashion, we’ve had a couple of lovely days, followed by a return to freezing cold weather. I hope everyone is doing well and is ready for a full movie review this week. My family and I want to see The Minecraft Movie, but our schedules haven’t aligned, so here’s hoping we can make that happen soon. In the meantime, I found a fun replacement.
My pick this week is “The Amateur” by director James Hawes. Hawes, who has quite a few directing credits under his belt for television, is a relative newcomer to the world of wide-release film directing. Not only did he pick a fun one to make, but he also had a great cast to help make him look good. But before I jump into the action, keep in mind that beyond this point, there will be spoilers. If you have yet to see “The Amateur” and don’t want to be spoiled, then I would go check out some of my other reviews on my website here. For everyone else, let’s get to it.
“The Amateur” stars Malek as Charlie Heller, a data decoder for the CIA. He is married to Sarah (Brosnahan), and things appear to be amazing until she goes on a work trip to London and is killed when a hostage situation breaks out. She was trying to save someone else when they decided to take her instead. When Charlie finds out about this, he is understandably upset, but even more so when a couple of leaders within the CIA refuse to do much to catch his wife’s killers.
Since he had earlier found out some incriminating information about CIA Director Moore (Holt McCallany), he tried to use that to sway them to take some action. He had already done a ton of work to track down who all of the killers were and how to start locating them. But since they still refused to assist, he tried to blackmail them into letting him be trained. Until they could prove otherwise, they sent him to be trained by the best…Henderson (Fishburne).
Right around the time Henderson concluded that Charlie couldn’t be trained in the way he wanted, the CIA had also figured out Charlie was bluffing about what he would do with the information on Director Moore. However, by the time they figure this out, he has made fake IDs and is on the run. Along with Fishburne, the cast also includes Jon Bernthal as the Bear, Adrian Martinez as Carlos, Caitríona Balfe as Inquiline, and Julianne Nicholson as the head of the CIA, Director O’Brien.
Some of the roles in “The Amateur” were wasted, in my opinion. Both Carlos and Inquiline were not involved in the main story for as long as I would have liked to see, but you could have taken out The Bear entirely, and the story would be pretty much identical. It’s a shame, too, since I think they could have expanded that into something for sure.
My favorite duo in “The Amateur” is, by far, Charlie and Henderson. Every scene when they are together is some of the best in the film. That’s why I was glad when they met up at the end again. Especially after Henderson chases Charlie down as he is on the run. Even though they part on good terms, there is a lot of turmoil between the two of them, although you get the feeling that Henderson has some respect for him in some way.
It’s fun to watch Charlie work his magic as he tracks down everyone who had a role in his wife’s death. One by one, he locates them, watches their patterns, and then devises a plan to eliminate them without getting too close. He does all of this using his knowledge he gained as a CIA employee. As he works through his list, Henderson and the CIA are closing in on tracking him down. After a couple of confrontations with Henderson, he finally manages to make his way to the last guy.
In a nice twist, Charlie is able to take down both the big bad and the CIA Directors who were trying to take him out. Malek is great once again, even if this does give off “Mr. Robot” vibes a little bit. He knows how to immerse himself into a role and really punch it through. Even though Brosnahan is mostly just around in flashbacks and memories, she was just as good. Those two, combined with everyone else, made for a great cast. I also can’t find a lot about the story to dislike. It’s suspenseful, action-packed and leaves you wondering how it is going to end. Like I said earlier, some of the characters weren’t as well flushed out, and some were just outright ignored for no reason (Bernthal).
Overall, it was a fun time, and I was pleasantly surprised while I watched. Not sure if anyone other than Malek could have played the part of Charlie as good as he did. With all of that, I find it hard-pressed to give this anything other than an 8 out of 10!
That’s it for this week’s review. Have you seen “The Amateur” yet? If so, what are your first reactions? Do you think that Rami Malek was the best part of the whole movie? What did you think of the story? Let me know in the comments below, and I will be back next week with another mindless movie of some sort- hopefully Minecraft. Thanks and see everyone next week.
