In The Amateur, Rami Malek Trades Code for Combat in a Solid Spy Thriller

The Amateur

★ ★ ★ ½

The Amateur is a spy thriller starring Rami Malek as Charlie Heller, an expert CIA cryptographer. He’s happily married to Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), who is heading to London for a conference. She begs Charlie to take some time off and join her. “Next time,” he tells her.

That’s the last time he sees Sarah alive. Terrorists take over the conference, hold her hostage and murder her during their getaway. Deputy Director Moore (Holt McCallany) brings Charlie to Director O’Brien’s (Julianne Nicholson) office on the top floor. He’s given the terrible news and shown footage of the incident. Obviously, he’s completely devastated.

Raimi Malek and Rachel Brosnahan
© 2025 20th Century Studios

He puts his skills to work and manages to piece together who the terrorists are and presents the evidence to Director Moore and assistant deputy Caleb Horowitz (Danny Sapani). They’re already aware of the evidence and unable to act on it. Charlie then asks to become a field agent.

There’s a social hierarchy in The Amateur’s CIA. The lunch room is much like high school where scientists, technologists, cryptographers, et al. sit at one set of tables, while field agents have their own set. Until now, Charlie was fine with his place in the pecking order. The film does a good job setting this up, and it’s important, because the leap from cryptographer to field agent is damned near impossible.

Laurence Fishburne and Rami Malek
© 2025 20th Century Studios

Director Moore gives him a chance and sends him to train with Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), a master of CIA badassery. Henderson tells Charlie that he can teach him skills, but not the all-important killer instinct a field agent must have, of which Charlie seems to be drastically lacking.

Fueled by revenge, Charlie sets out to track down Sarah’s killers, relying on his own skill set to get the job done.

The film makes clear why cryptographers rarely become field agents, never letting Charlie off the hook. He has to pull from everything he knows to accomplish his self-assigned mission and battle for every inch of success.

Laurence Fishburne as Henderson
© 2025 20th Century Studios

The Amateur is a strong spy thriller that often turns the genre on its head. Malek is no stranger to this type of role. He played a troubled, genius-level hacker in the popular series Mr. Robot. He was also the James Bond villain in No Time to Die. Here, he’s quite convincing as a widower hell bent on revenge.

The film’s few flaws come from the script’s pacing. There are moments when the story just drags a bit, perhaps staying in scenes longer than necessary.

It’s a provocative little thriller with some inventive, refreshing action scenes. It’s a well told revenge story, in which the everyday man gets his shot at action-film glory.