‘The Amateur’ Movie Review; Rami Malek Shines in a Spy Thriller

“The Amateur” directed by James Hawes is an action spy film, released on April 11, 2025. It stars Rami Malek and Rachel Brosnahan in lead roles. The story revolves around a man named Charles Heller [Remi Malek] and his wife Sarah Horowitz [Rachel Brosnahan]. Charles Heller tries to find the killers of his wife, who was held hostage and killed in London.

The Amateur Synopsis

“The Amateur” is an adaptation of the novel by the same title, written by Robert Litell. Charles Heller works in the decryption and analysis department for the CIA. Sarah, his wife, goes to London for a conference, also insisting that Charles to come, which he declines due to work. The hotel where Sarah’s conference is held gets attacked by a group of terrorists, and she is held hostage and killed.

Charles devastated plans to find the killers, with his skills in technology and devices. He successfully finds one of them and then prepares a CIA report, which he submits to the CIA Deputy Director Alex, who does not pays no heed to his report.

This leads to Charles blackmailing him and his associate with their secrets, which he may reveal to the CIA. Charles goes for training to face his wife’s killers. On the other hand, Alex vows to destroy his life. Charles fights his opponents, but the climax was unexpected.

THE AMATEUR: a (mostly) solid slow burn of a thriller that had me hooked till the end, thanks to a terrific Rami Malek, slick direction and some fun action sequences. Extremely old school in its approach, and handles themes of grief and justice quite well. Good stuff. #TheAmateur pic.twitter.com/R4jKejFzOt

— Shaurya Chawla (@_ShauryaChawla) April 6, 2025

The Review

The Film received mixed reviews from critics for its cinematography and loopholes. Many people found the movie “slow,” while some thought it had too many loopholes. A user on X shared his review and said “there are just too many loopholes and unexplained angles!”.

Another user wrote, “was moving too slow and walked out.” However, Rami Malek’s acting was appreciated by the audience because of the strong and protagonist character energy. Rami also won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2019 for the film “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

The movie is a decent thriller, especially with Rami’s strong character. However, the movie shows how the CIA was weak and the scenes may look slightly slow to fans.