The Amateur

Directed by James Hawes, The Amateur follows meek CIA analyst Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) as he embarks on a campaign of vengeance after his wife (Rachel Brosnahan’s Sarah) is killed during a terrorist attack. It’s seemingly foolproof subject matter that’s employed to partially watchable yet mostly underwhelming effect by Hawes, which is surprising, to say the least, given the compelling bent of the picture’s opening stretch – with the promising atmosphere heightened by the revenge-fueled narrative and solid work of such periphery performers as Julianne Nicholson, Holt McCallany, and Laurence Fishburne. (It’s clear, in terms of the latter, that Malek’s inability to comfortably step into the shoes of his character plays a key role in confirming the movie’s downfall, as the actor offers up a somewhat robotic turn that prevents the viewer from wholeheartedly rooting for Charlie’s progressively perilous exploits.) There’s little doubt, then, that The Amateur‘s slow-but-steady descent into irrelevance and tedium is triggered by an oddly uninvolving midsection and second half, and while it admittedly does boast a small handful of effective sequences and digressions (eg Charlie’s late-in-the-game confrontation with Michael Stuhlbarg’s quietly sinister figure), the film’s predominantly lackluster vibe renders its positive attributes moot and ensures that it is, in the end, ultimately unable to live up to the unquestionably stellar premise.

** out of ****