The Amateur
Heller (Rami Malek) is an a codebreaker and analyst for the CIA, but, when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed by a group of international terrorists in London, the desire to trade his desk jockey job for field operative to settle the score becomes real. Unsupported by his superiors, finding a way to bring the group down will take every trick in the book to outsmart them all, but at what cost?
Written by Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli, and Robert Littell and Directed by James Hawes this perfectly milquetoast thriller works like a paint by numbers script of Mr. Robot crossed with Jason Bourne, which is to say cyber espionage with timid wit in the face of dichotomic spy action, bullet dodging and car chasing has never been so right down the fairway, until now. In fact there’s something to be said for a good ol’ late 90’s spy/tech/thriller, it’s just too bad that the boundaries weren’t pushed further, the “surprises” weren’t better concealed, and the archetypes so predictable. Further, starting with a lag in Act I, while character building, the overall story doesn’t hook us to invest heavily or sufficiently in the characters. Instead we’re left to let the dirge roll out and overstay its welcome, coming in at two hours and three minutes of runtime, a swifter editor’s knife could have improved the pacing and urgency to drive the film forward. The Amateur is rated PG-13.