Johnny Showtime: THE AMATEUR

 by JB

The trailer for this new revenge thriller does the film itself a disservice.

Far be it for me to stop a motion picture studio from making money. Given how empty my local cineplex has been for the last two years, I don’t begrudge real, honest-to-goodness movies and real, honest-to-goodness theaters from making a living. I just think that the trailer sells this movie a little short, casting Rami Malek as sort of a high-tech Paul Kersey from Death Wish. Yet The Amateur is so much better than that. Why?

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: CIA Data Analyst Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) has a beautiful wife, Sarah, who takes a work trip to London and is promptly murdered by terrorists. Frustrated that his Company seems to be dragging its feet with the investigation, Heller uses the CIA's vast resources to discover their identities on his own. He tries to convince his bosses to let him track down his wife’s killers, but they're not keen on the idea—so Charlie goes ROGUE.

The Amateur deals with grief. The inciting incident in this revenge plot is the death of a loved one, and the film pays more than lip service to this device. The rest of the movie will seem rushed or exploitative if we don’t believe the protagonist is really going through it.

The film honestly tries its damnedest to get the audience to suspend its disbelief. Is it likely that nerdy desk jockey Charlie Heller could, or would, book himself a four-city European revenge tour with only a laptop and a week's worth of CIA summer camp? The screenwriters try to use Charlie’s intellect to convince us he could pull it off; I wish some of the script's machinations were a bit more elegant, but Charlie himself was interesting enough to get my buy-in.

The Amateur is full of thoughtful performances and nuance. With the possible exception of Holt McCallany as CIA Director Moore (to be honest, he isn’t given a lot to work with), all of the leads and supporting players give performances that are better than this boilerplate material demands. Malek, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Stuhlbarg are standouts, but I was also impressed by Jon Bernthal, Rachel Brosnahan, and Caitríona Balfe, who only get about three scenes each. I wish all these supporting actors had more screentime. The end of the film hints at a sequel. Might some of these actors come back?

TRIVIAL NOTE: Bernthal’s character is identified as “The Bear” in the end credits. I wondered if this was a nod to Bernthal's involvement with the Hulu series of the same name.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting when I entered the theater, but The Amateur delivered. Like other films we have talked about here (I’m looking at you, Mamma Mia!), seeing The Amateur is like taking a vacation. The film jumps from rural Virginia to London to Prague to Madrid and elsewhere as Malek chases the bad guys. If you are a fan of murder AND European architecture, you will love this movie! There’s also a fun scene wherein Heller picks a lock using a YouTube instructional video on his phone. My delight in this scene might actually say more about my unique relationship to YouTube (and committing crimes.)

Yes, the film features a few “gimmicky kills” that are featured prominently in the trailer. If this convinces some audience members to see the film, all’s the better. Still, I was glad that the film more on its mind than exploding swimming pools. What I will take away from the film are two more thoughtful scenes: one between Malek and Brosnahan and the other between Malek and Stuhlbarg. Gimmicks are fun, but if we don't believe the film's relationships, the whole thing falls apart.

MARKETING NOTE: Is the studio’s marketing department trying to hide Stuhlbarg’s participation in this film? Do they want it to be a surprise? He is listed in the opening credits, but I can only find a single production photograph of him online!

I was happy that this film gave me more than I was expecting: more emotional depth, more complexity, and a little more thoughtfulness than the standard issue Hollywood action movie. Screenwriters Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli, and Robert Littell make a decision regarding the film’s climax that I applaud: it's surprising but flows directly from the action. The Amateur—along with my recent screenings of The Day the Earth Blew Up and Black Bag—is slowly making me optimistic about the movie year ahead. Maybe we filmgoers won’t need to travel overseas, blow up pools, or murder anyone to get a dozen good movies this year?