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The Amateur centres around CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller (Rami Malek – No Time To Die), who likes puzzles, but is going to wish he didn’t have to try and solve the latestone.
His wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan – Superman 2025) is away on work in London, but gets caught up in the middle of an arms deal gone wrong, and is murdered by terrorists. Once Charlie’s had time to process this, ultimately, he not only wants to finger the killer, but also take down the whole gang.
However, he wants CIA training, so he can do it legitimately, which leads to him being trained by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne – Transformers One), although when he put this forward to his boss, CIA Deputy Director Alex Moore (Holt McCallany – The Iron Claw), the response comes, “Sure. What else? An Aston Martin? A jet-pack(?)”
Fair point, because Charlie does look like Walter The Softie from The Beano.
The Amateur is an engaging thriller, but also a slow-burner, even if the trailer is brief and makes it look more action-packed, highlighting a scene with a swimming pool, which is the major set-piece of the film.
Where it falls down early on, is that even though it technically falls under the remit of his job, he’s allowed to scour the CCTV for the terrorists’ derring-do over in Blighty, when in reality, he would be kept away from it, given that he’s too close to what happened.
There’s also a particularly dumb old trope, which you’ll have seen countless times, but even though I won’t say who’s involved in this scene, I’ll put behind a spoiler in case you don’t want to know what you can spot coming a mile off…
Additionally, what I didn’t know until when I wrote this, is that while it’s based on a novel from 1981, there was also a film made in the same year, starring Christopher Plummer.
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credit scenes.
The Amateur is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 123 minutes
Release date: April 11th 2025
Studio: 20th Century Studios
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: James Hawes
Producers: Rami Malek, Joel B Michaels, Hutch Parker, Dan Wilson
Screenplay: Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli
Novel: Robert Littell
Music: Volker Bertelmann
Cast:
Charlie Heller: Rami Malek
Sarah Heller: Rachel Brosnahan
Schiller: Michael Stuhlbarg
Inquiline: CaitrÃona Balfe
CIA Deputy Director Alex Moore: Holt McCallany
CIA Director Samantha O’Brien: Julianne Nicholson
The Bear: Jon Bernthal
Slater: Evan Milton
Finn: Nick Mills
Henderson: Laurence Fishburne
Esther: Tiffany Gray
Carlos: Adrian Martinez
Gretchen Frank: Barbara Probst
Ellish: Joseph Millson
Mishka Blazhic: Marc Rissmann
Caleb: Danny Sapani
Ali Park: Alice Hewkin
Gretchen’s Partner: Marthe Keller
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.