The Amateur

A Spy Thriller That Plays It Too Safe

Spy thrillers have largely disappeared from film slates in the last decade, with the only iterations of this once-lucrative genre coming from established franchises like Mission: Impossible or James Bond. However, 2025 is attempting to revive the genre for the silver screen, with Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag (2025) premiering earlier this year and the star-studded The Amateur (2025) remake now hitting screens.

The Amateur is a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, whose screenplay was in turn adapted into a novel by author Robert Littell. The newest version follows many of the same beats, albeit in a modern setting instead of the Cold War. CIA decryption expert Christopher Heller (Rami Malek) discovers his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) has been murdered in a terrorist attack in London. Seeing that his agency is not moving fast enough, Heller—a computer programmer—takes it upon himself to train with deadly spy Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) and hunt down his wife’s killers.

The Amateur is directed by James Hawes, an experienced TV director who has helmed episodes of series such as Penny Dreadful (2014–2016), Black Mirror (2011–), and Slow Horses (2022–), and recently made his feature debut with the historical drama One Life (2023). Hawes is a capable director, whose invisible hand delivers competent staging of chases, melancholy, and drama. He corrals his actors into maintaining a consistent tone as well—something far more difficult than it might seem, given the big names on the call sheet.

However, the adaptation of this remake from Gary Spinelli (American Made (2017)) and Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down(2001), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)) veers too close to cliché spy genre territory. The build-up of an untrained spy attempting to exact revenge using only his coding skills is an intriguing one—yet it takes up nearly half the film. Once the actual sleuthing and revenge begins, the execution is underwhelming. There is no standout sequence or gripping climax. Instead, the screenwriters lean on implausible coding and digital hacks as deus ex machinas to solve The Amateur’s plot problems whenever necessary. Need to instantly track a stranger’s phone? Just a few clicks on a keyboard will suffice. Have to shatter an elevated pool? A tap of a button will magically destabilize the structure. These are cop-outs—shortcuts that avoid having to come up with witty or intelligent solutions. The film rushes from predictable beat to predictable beat instead.

The Amateur stacks a rather impressive cast—too impressive, in fact. There’s a slew of standout character actors in minuscule roles, from Michael Stuhlbarg to Julianne Nicholson. Even bona fide stars like Jon Bernthal and Caitríona Balfe appear in such small parts they feel more like cameos. Fishburne, who receives high billing in the marketing, is also short-changed in screen time—though he’s so talented that his limited presence still registers as one of the more memorable parts of the film. At the center is Malek, who disappointingly plays a variation of his Mr. Robot (2015–2019) character. In a film like this, I would’ve liked to see another side of the actor, yet he’s at risk of being typecast into the neurotic computer guy role rather than exploring the range he showcased in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and No Time to Die (2021). Malek still demonstrates his acting prowess—his scene discovering his wife’s death is a standout—but there’s only so much he can do when constrained by genre clichés.

In the end, The Amateur is a by-the-numbers spy thriller that neither rises above nor sinks below expectations. By playing it too safe, the film veers into cookie-cutter territory. But given how few spy films are made these days, it’s still refreshing to see a new iteration on the big screen. Sadly, lazy writing bogs down the otherwise competent directing and stacked cast.

6.0/10