The Amateur: a Review

The Amateur (Currently in wide release in English and French in Quebec) 

Dir James Hawes 

Staring: Rami Malek, Michael Stuhlbarg, Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan

    When the idea of The Amature was pitched in the trailer, as a person hellbent on revenge after terrorists take the life of someone they loved, it made me think of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Collateral Damage (2002). My one reservation with the film going in was how they were going to portray Rami Malek’s Charles Heller as an action man bent on revenge in the Schwarzenegger fashion of guns going off and action fist fights. I have never seen Malek as an action star, previous works have included the television thriller series Mr Robot and the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. After his acclaim with both projects, Malek has not been seen in a lot of roles, besides a villain in the last James Bond entry for Daniel Craig’s No Time to Die, and a detective in The Little Things. So how does Malek pull off the action in this spy thriller when even his boss tells him “You wouldn’t even win in an arm wrestling match against a 90-year-old nun” or his aversion to using a gun in his early training with Laurence Fishburne’s Henderson? 

    Charles Heller lives the ideal life, with hobbies including rebuilding an airplane and puzzles alongside his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan). His profession is a decoder and data decrypter for the Central Intelligence Agency. He is currently coming across some critical information that could be damning to the organization. His wife, who leaves for a work trip for a few days, seems routine until his boss calls him down to his office. In the office he reveals that Sarah was taken as a hostage by a terrorist organization as a pawn for the getaway and was killed in the getaway attempt by the group. Heller goes through the grieving process, including the five stages, but seems stuck at anger. After submitting all the evidence to the identities of the terrorists, four of them, his boss and other liaisons seem not to take him seriously to go after the group, so he uses the damning evidence of misconduct as leverage for CIA field training to go after those responsible personally. 

For his training, he meets his handler Henderson, who doesn't have a lot of faith in Heller and arrives late, getting in the back of the car instead of the front “I ain’t no Uber driver”. When it comes to his training, Heller fails at the shooting range, unless his target is up close and personal. He has some success in creating devices for explosions, which Henderson remarks that we finally found something you're good at. The real test, as seen in the trailer, is when  Henderson gives Charlie a gun and wants Charlie to shoot Henderson, which Charlie panics and doesn't want to pull the trigger “Face it Charlie, you are not a killer”. When the tables turn and the CIA gets the upper hand, Charlie escapes and goes on to face his wife’s killers and their accomplices. 

    The globe-trotting adventure picks up with Charlie always trying to be one step ahead of the CIA and Henderson, who are hot on his trail. As Charlie tracks down the four key players, he uses every tool in his arsenal of tactics to take out his opponents, which doesn't rely on hand-to-hand combat or gunplay action. More precisely, these are methods that explore the weakness of his adversaries and use the environment to take down his opponents. There are also some great uses of foot chases between Henderson and Charlie, juxtaposing the neon lights at the bars and the clubs while in France. Back at home, the CIA is trying to clean the house of those who are the traitors from within. 

    The Armateur works not for the Guns or action fights but rather the methodical tools in Charles Heller’s arsenal of knowledge in the execution of his targets, that would make Agent 47 of the hitman series blush. The chase scenes between Heller and Henderson are well executed even before we realise that director James Hawes doesn't have too many action films in his filmography, but possibly the closest would be The 39 Steps (2008). In another way it can be seen as a pro-American, make the CIA great again film, free from scandals. Film composer Volker Bertelmann sets the score for this film. A big reservation comes from the trailer which I feel reveals too much, as trailers these days tend to do, where Charles Heller faces off in his own way against two of his wife’s killers or accomplices.   It’s always great to see Maleck in a new film and my reservations are put aside because he holds his own arsenal of the trades in this action film. 

⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Remi is the host of At The Movies Along regular Co-Host Danny Aubery every Tuesday morning from 8-9 AM only on CJLO 1690 AM. They cover local film festivals, have interviews with directors and actors, and talk about a new film or the classics. As well the iconic sounds of present and past film scores and soundtracks. Fallow Remi on Letterboxd.