The Amateur is well-directed, with an engaging enough visual look to keep the runtime going, as well as a strong score by Oscar winner Volker Bertelmann. However, it settles for mediocre as often as it becomes thrilling. Rami Malek is excellently cast in the role, but in earlier moments in the film, his performance still feels distant, and gets to shine more later, or sometimes the editing is to blame for not letting us sit with Charlie’s grief and pain for longer in certain scenes. Holt McCallany is especially memorable as the tough CIA Deputy Director, as is Laurence Fishburne a resourceful yet more empathetic CIA operative.
Despite the packed cast, the story itself sometimes feels muted, including a lack of true exploration of the idea that this hardly trained man is committing elaborately planned out killings that would be viewed as sadistic if the men he was killing weren’t murderous terrorists. The dialogue also sometimes falters, but the elements of the formula of a smart fugitive looking for justice on the run from the law do often work, and the action-heavy scenes themselves work well. Though the resolution leaves a bit to be desired from an emotional point of view, the third act subverts some expectations, and a character that enters the film in the latter half creates some very interesting developments. The movie’s entertaining enough for fans of action and espionage films that are more patient and let their stories breathe, but it also doesn’t stand out from the crowd of similar films or demand audiences to rush to the theater.
3/5