Charles Heller (Rami Malek) is an analyst for the CIA, so most of his days are spent sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen. His wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), is some type of photographer who leaves on a trip to London within the first twenty minutes of the movie. When she’s taken hostage and killed by a group of armed men, Charles becomes frustrated with the CIA’s lack of action and vows to track them down and kill them himself. 

 

On the surface, this storyline seems like a surefire winner. A grieving and highly intelligent husband takes matters into his own hands to avenge his now-dead wife. It's like John Wick or Jason Bourne, but replaced by a nerdy tech guy instead of a trained assassin. It should be a fun, action-packed, thriller. And at some points The Amateur is just that—like when Heller is breaking into an apartment and pulls up a YouTube video on how to pick a lock. But the majority of the movie is too messy and underdeveloped to pack the type of punch it intended. 

 

We view Heller with a long-distance-lens at all times, never really getting a peek into his psyche. Rachel Brosnahan does her best (which, as always, is very good) with Sarah but we get even less information about her. It’s not even clear why she went to London in the first place. Parts of the plot don’t make a lot of sense, including who the armed men actually are and a flimsy blackmail endeavor that sends CIA officials on a wild goose chase. 

 

This could all be forgiven if Malek made his on screen presence more compelling or even if the screenplay leaned into more light-hearted moments that poke fun at the whole idea (like the aforementioned lock picking). Neither of those things happens, leaving you watching a movie that spends most of the two hour and two minute runtime searching for its own pulse, which is inconsistent at best. The Amateur isn’t a disaster, by any means. But it takes its title a little too seriously on all counts.