To properly convey my thoughts on James Hawes’ The Amateur, I must first admit that the “ᴅᴇᴀᴅ wife” trope is an immediate turn-off for me in any story. Suffice it to say, then, that I entered the movie theater prejudiced — and that I was happy to be proven wrong. Yes, Charlie Heller (a brilliant Rami Malek) spends an appropriate amount of time dreaming up memories of his beautiful wife Sarah (an underutilized Rachel Brosnahan), but the screenplay by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli offers plenty more than the usual setup of a man hulking out over a woman’s death.

The Amateur could easily follow the fish-out-of-water template of a computer nerd trying his hand at not-so-government-sanctioned serial killing, or the high-octane Mission: Impossible shenanigans that ignore his background and lack of training, but it opts for a very interesting mix with fewer laughs, almost no explosions, and plenty of food for thought. Heller doesn’t know what it takes to survive a rogue mission to eliminate Sarah’s murderers; that’s something CIA trainer Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) must teach him. What he does have is his puzzle-solving brain and half the agency’s secrets, which he and the movie deploy to great effect.

The Amateur Flips A Few Tired Tropes On Their Head, Making For A Stronger Story

Rami Malek’s Charlie Is Confronted With The Question Of “What Is This All For?” In The Best Possible Way

First, I must heap praise on Rami Malek. No one should ever doubt his talent, but I still didn’t imagine he would be able to take such a boilerplate character and add moments of depth and clarity with only a subtle change in expression. Of course, credit is also due to Hawes — whose work on Slow Horses season 1 explains why certain moments of The Amateur feel like prestige television. That’s not a dig, by the way, because good TV has mastered character development in a way that a two-hour movie simply cannot, and yet this movie found a way.

While the screenplay doesn’t do much to reveal who Sarah was as a person (beyond Heller’s righteous insistence to anyone who would listen that “she mattered“), it does call into question Heller’s mission and who it’s for. Henderson insists he’s not a killer, which would render his mission moot, and he manages to become one without stepping out of character or going against the initial point. Rather than following a Batman mentality of beating villains by being better than them, refusing to kill for the greater good, Heller finds a way to simply be better at killing than they are.

One poignant moment of insight comes from Caitríona Balfe’s character, whose name may be a spoiler worthy of keeping. While she and Charlie commiserate about the loss of their respective loved ones, she acknowledges that her own actions have been about “trying to fill that silence” which has now taken the place of her husband. She then asks Heller perhaps the most important question of all: “Is this how you should try to fill yours?” Regardless of the note of triumph that accompanies each successful step of his vendetta, The Amateur purposely doesn’t give a definitive answer.

The Amateur’s Trailer Spoils Some Of Its Coolest Moments

While Tantalizing, The Trailer Undercuts The Movie’s Surprise Factor

This may be a silly nitpick, but given that one of The Amateur‘s strengths is its inventive kills, I was disappointed that the most visually exciting one was shown in the trailer. The pacing of the plot makes it impossible to cram too many action sequences into the runtime, so each one was like a properly timed bomb going off. Because of this, there isn’t much suspense in whether Heller’s training will empower him properly, making some of the first half drag. Nevertheless, the marketing team has to sell the story, so I can’t fault it too much for that.

The measured tone also hampers some of the scenes in between each spy thriller tentpole, as the film can’t fall back on quirky one-liners for a quick laugh or melodramatic outbursts to wring tears or gasps from the audience. But, again, this is where Malek shines thanks to his ability to imbue each onscreen moment with emotion. Even when I felt like I was killing time waiting for the next confrontation or realization, I was learning something valuable about Charlie and his story just from Malek’s gaze.