The Amateur (2025 film)

The Amateur is a 2025 American vigilante spy action film directed by James Hawes and written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, which was previously adapted into a Canadian film. It stars Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, and Laurence Fishburne.

The film was released in the United States by 20th Century Studios on April 11, 2025. The film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised Malek's performance but criticized the film as formulaic.

CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller is restoring an old Cessna as a present from his wife, Sarah, who leaves for a business trip in London. At the CIA's Decryption and Analysis division, Charlie has befriended a field agent nicknamed "the Bear", and an anonymous source codenamed "Inquiline". Classified files from Inquiline reveal Special Activities Center Director and Charlie's boss Alex Moore disguised politically-motivated drone strikes as suicide bombings. Charlie subsequently is brought to CIA Director Samantha O'Brien, who informs him that Sarah has been killed in a terrorist attack.

A grieving Charlie soon presents his own findings: After an arms deal gone wrong, the four assailants took Sarah and others hostage, killing her before escaping. Charlie identifies the suspects — Belarusian criminal Mishka Blazhic, South African ex-special forces operative Ellish, former Armenian intelligence officer Gretchen Frank, and elusive mastermind Horst Schiller, Sarah's killer — but Moore and his deputy Caleb insist they are working to take down Schiller's entire network. Determined to avenge Sarah, Charlie confronts Moore with his incriminating orders, which caused hundreds of civilian and allied casualties. Threatening to leak the information, Charlie demands the resources to personally hunt down the four assailants.

Sent to train with Col. Robert Henderson at Camp Peary, the gun-shy Charlie excels at bomb-making, but Henderson declares he is simply not capable of killing. Searching Charlie's home and office, Moore and Caleb discover a CD he hid in a bar's jukebox, but realize he was bluffing. Henderson is ordered to eliminate Charlie, who bugged the files he left in Moore's office and has already left the country.

Charlie tracks down Gretchen in Paris, following a lock-picking tutorial to break into her apartment. He discovers Gretchen's appointment at an allergy clinic and takes a gun, but cannot bring himself to shoot her. Haunted by memories of Sarah, he traps Gretchen at the clinic in a hypobaric chamber that he fills with pollen. Charlie demands to know Schiller's location, but is unwilling to let Gretchen die and releases her, but she escapes to the street and is fatally struck by a car.

Taking Gretchen's phone, Charlie flees to Marseille where Henderson corners him in a bar, but he sets off an explosion in the bathroom and escapes. He requests Inquiline's help and is smuggled to Istanbul, where Inquiline reveals herself as the Russian widow of a murdered ex-KGB officer, having taken his place as Charlie's source. They trace Blazhic to a luxury hotel in Madrid, while O'Brien learns Moore has sent Henderson after Charlie, and deploys her own operative.

In Madrid, Charlie confronts Blazhic as he swims in the hotel's rooftop pool, having rigged scuba equipment to decompress the air between the pool's sheets of glass. When Blazhic refuses to cooperate, Charlie shatters the glass and sends him plummeting to his death. He is nearly apprehended by Henderson, who is attacked by O'Brien's operative; in the struggle, Henderson is shot but kills the operative, and Charlie escapes. Caleb realizes that Charlie is communicating with someone and tracks down Inquiline. He sends a strike team to Istanbul, and Inquiline is killed as she flees with Charlie.

Charlie tracks down Ellish in Romania under the guise of selling him missiles and traps him with an improvised explosive, forcing him to reveal that Schiller operates from a ship on the Baltic Sea. He takes Ellish's phone and leaves him to die in the explosion. Charlie arrives in Primorsk to spy on Schiller's operation. Bear confronts him, but Charlie refuses to end his vendetta.

Charlie is captured and brought aboard Schiller's ship, coming face-to-face with Sarah's killer. Schiller offers him a loaded gun and the chance to take his revenge. Instead, Charlie reveals he has hacked the ship, steering it to the Gulf of Finland where Schiller is taken into custody by Finnish police and Interpol. Moore and Caleb are arrested for their unsanctioned operations. After being visited by a recovered Henderson, Charlie finishes his plane's restoration and takes it for a flight.

Additionally, Marthe Keller, one of the stars of the 1981 film, has a cameo appearance as a florist in Paris.

Development on a new adaptation of the Robert Littell novel was first announced in November 2006, with Hugh Jackman attached to star, and Evan Katz writing the screenplay.^[12] In February 2023, Hutch Parker and Dan Wilson were announced to be producing the project for 20th Century Studios with James Hawes attached as director and Rami Malek in the lead role.^[6] Malek was also listed as an executive producer on the project.^[13] In May, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, Adrian Martinez, Laurence Fishburne, Holt McCallany and Julianne Nicholson were added to the cast.^[10][7][9]

Principal photography began in London in June 2023. Filming locations were scheduled for around the south-east of England, as well as France and Turkey.^[14] Production also took place at Pinewood Studios.^[15] Filming was suspended in July due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.^[16] Filming resumed by December 2023.^[17][18] It was later confirmed that Takehiro Hira was also cast.^[11] In October 2024, it was determined by the Writers Guild of America that Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli would receive screenplay credit, while Katz, Scott Z. Burns, Stephen Chin, Scott Frank, Hawes, Littell, Diana Maddox, and Patrick Ness contributed additional literary material.^[19]

The film was released on April 11, 2025,^[20] after previously being scheduled for November 8, 2024.^[21]

In the United States and Canada, The Amateur was released alongside Drop, Warfare, and The King of Kings, and is projected to gross $12–14 million from 3,300 theaters in its opening weekend.^[3][22] The film made $2 million from preview screenings throughout the week.^[23]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 61% of 155 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Rami Malek is a compellingly unconventional action hero in the otherwise formulaic The Amateur, which dispenses justice with solid execution but a curious lack of emotional stakes."^[24] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[25] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.^[23]

IndieWire's David Ehrlich calls it "an aggressively competent spy thriller".^[26] Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote, "The movie isn't badly made (it's never less than watchable), but a lot of pulp has been stuffed into its blender".^[27] RogerEbert.com's Brian Tallerico graded the film a one and half out of four. He wrote, "The foundational problem with a film like this is that the lack of personality forces the viewer to consider the plot, which is a load of utter nonsense. Suspension of disbelief is so much easier when a film gives you something else to hold onto, which is just not the case here, leaving viewers stuck with shallow characters and ludicrous plotting".^[28]

• American Assassin (2017 film)

• Official website
• The Amateur at IMDb