Rami Malek’s Exciting, Grounded Spy Movie

The Amateur, directed by James Hawes and starring Rami Malek, is a throwback to old-school spy thrillers with a modern edge. It’s a gritty, character-driven vigilante story that doesn’t try to reinvent the genre but instead leans into what makes these types of movies satisfying. Grounded, smart, and often tense, the film delivers an experience that feels familiar yet fresh, largely thanks to its unique protagonist.

Malek plays Charles Heller, a CIA cryptographer whose life is shattered when his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), is killed in a terrorist attack in London. When Charles discovers that the agency has no plans to go after the perpetrators due to bureaucratic red tape and competing interests, he takes matters into his own hands. Using classified information to blackmail the CIA into training him for the field, Charles becomes an unlikely operative fueled by grief and revenge.

This is where the movie shines. Malek isn’t your typical action star. He’s wiry, awkward, and doesn’t suddenly gain super-soldier skills overnight. What he brings is intellect and desperation. Watching Charles navigate the world of espionage with little experience but sharp instincts gives the film a grounded tension. In one standout moment, Charles fumbles with a locked door and has to pull up a YouTube tutorial on lockpicking. That moment sums up the film’s commitment to realism. It keeps Charles human, even as the stakes around him escalate.

Laurence Fishburne brings gravitas as Robert Henderson, Charles’s reluctant handler who finds himself caught between duty and empathy. It’s definitely a role we’ve seen Fishburne play before, as he trains Charles in a way that feels like a more abrasive Morpheus. Their dynamic is compelling. Henderson proves to be an antagonistic force to Charles at times, and even though the movie could have fleshed out his character a bit more, Fishburne’s presence lends the film a weight that balances Malek’s more frenetic energy.

Rachel Brosnahan’s role as Sarah is brief, but the film makes an effort to establish the emotional connection between her and Charles early on. It’s a small role for the actress sure to make a longer-lasting impression as Lois Lane later this year in the upcoming Superman film. Furthermore, the premise of the dead wife as a plot device feels overly familiar. I’ve grown to call it Dead Wife Syndrome (DWS), where a male protagonist loses his love interest and is plagued with visions of her as he grieves (also seen in The Creator, Haunted Mansion, and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves).

It’s the classic motivation for male-driven revenge stories. Between this movie and A Working Man from the previous week, we have confirmed that if you’re a woman in an action movie written by men, your job is to get kidnapped or die. In the case of The Amateur, it’s technically both. While Sarah’s death is necessary for the plot to kick into gear, the trope can’t help but feel worn out, occasionally causing the film to stumble into cliché territory.

That said, The Amateur knows what kind of movie it is. It embraces its genre roots unapologetically, with chases through narrow alleys and a government tracking down our hero as he goes on the run. It’s not about surprising the audience with twists they’ve never seen before. It’s about executing familiar beats with precision and style. In that regard, the film delivers.

There are moments when the movie stretches believability. Charles’s transition from desk-bound cryptographer to capable field operative happens quickly, and the timeline of his training could have benefited from more detail. But even as it leans into those action-movie conveniences, the film never loses sight of who Charles is. He doesn’t suddenly become Jason Bourne. His victories come from planning, quick thinking, and technical know-how rather than brute force. He’s a brains-over-braun hero more likely to hack a system or create a distraction than to win a fistfight, and that keeps the story compelling.

Visually, the film avoids flashy aesthetics in favor of a muted, grounded look. There’s a sense of real-world danger in every scene, whether it’s a quiet conversation or a surveillance-heavy mission in a foreign city. The action is clean and suspenseful, relying on tight editing and strong geography rather than chaotic choreography. It’s the kind of spy movie that favors tension over spectacle.

The script isn’t perfect. Jon Bernthal appears in the film in a minor role that ultimately could have been cut out. It takes up a bit of screen time that ultimately feels inconsequential to Charles’s journey. But Malek’s performance holds the movie together. He brings a simmering intensity to Charles that makes even the more formulaic moments feel personal. In the end, The Amateur works because it keeps things simple. It tells the story of a man driven to do the unthinkable out of love and grief, and it doesn’t dress that story up with unnecessary complexity. It’s not trying to revolutionize the genre but rather to honor it with a story that feels plausible and emotionally resonant.

While it won’t go down as a groundbreaking entry in the spy thriller canon, The Amateur is a solid, well-acted, and smartly executed film that respects its audience. It offers the kind of straightforward, satisfying storytelling that sometimes gets lost in modern action cinema. In a landscape crowded with superhero bombast and over-the-top spectacle, that restraint is welcome.

SCORE: 7/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.