My movie reviews start with careful research as soon as I’ve finished a film – sometimes it’s during the credits.
It never fails that I’ll have some lingering question or curiosity from the movie and am driven to find the answer.
Though I’m nowhere near as adept as this week’s “The Amateur” spy flick’s main character.
Overall, the film was good enough in my book despite its subject matter and storyline used before in similar movies like “John Wick” (2014), “Taken” (2008), or “The Equalizer” (2014).
Despite the drive for revenge and justice, I’m used to a higher body count when the vigilantes get to work.
But, using widower Charlie Heller’s wife to juxtapose each stage of his revenge plan in quiet moments when he’s unsure of himself – they’re beautifully shot and help motivate him to see it all through.
So, I think it works for emotional impacts, but it felt more lacking than anything else.
Amateur is an American vigilante action spy film directed by James Hawes and written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli.
It’s also based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, which was previously adapted into a Canadian film.
The movie stars Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Joseph Millson, Marc Rissmann, Danny Sapani, Barbara Probst, and Laurence Fishburne.
Amateur is 123 minutes long and has a PG-13 for some strong violence, and language.
CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller (Malek) is restoring an old Cessna as a present from his wife Sarah (Brosnahan) 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” (Bernthal), and an anonymous source codenamed “Inquiline”(Balfe).
Classified files from Inquiline reveal Special Activities Center Director Alex Moore (McCallany) disguised politically-motivated drone strikes as suicide bombings.
Charlie subsequently is brought to CIA Director Samantha O’Brien (Nicholson) 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 (Rissmann), South African ex-special forces operative Ellish (Millson), former Armenian intelligence officer Gretchen Frank (Probst), and elusive mastermind Horst Schiller (Stuhlbarg), Sarah’s killer.
Unfortunately, Moore and his deputy Caleb (Sapani) insist they are working to take down Schiller’s entire network.
Determined to avenge Sarah, Charlie confronts Moore with his incriminating orders, which cause 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 (Fishburne) at Camp Peary, the gun-shy Charlie excels at bomb-making, but Henderson declares he is simply not capable of killing.
After 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.
From there, the CIA is hounding Heller’s steps across Europe as he hunts down the mercenaries that played a part in his wife’s death.
I found the highlights of the film were the locations and using Heller’s deceased wife throughout the film, but wasn’t a fan of the ending.
However, you’re more than welcome to check it out in theaters for yourself and form your own opinion.
