The Amateur review: Slick, stylish, but fairly forgettable

Sometimes, a well-crafted thriller doesn’t instantly make it a firm favorite. It’s gotta have pizzaz, sparkle, the it factor… and that’s something The Amateur will struggle to have going for it.

The 2025 release slate is awash with flashy gimmicks. When Marvel isn’t screening chairs for five and a half hours, it’s focused on building its Phase 6 legacy with brand-new faces. Gory horror movies feel like they’re filling up the multiplexes most weeks. So where does that leave the middle-ground releases?

In a chaotic and competitive industry, you gotta have that something special to stand out. A bygone star in a career comeback role. Impeccable storytelling that will define its year. Jack Black taking down a pig made out of cubes, perhaps. The methods to achieve greatness are endless.

If The Amateur – starring Rami Malek and Laurence Fishburne in its leading roles – had come out before Inception did, there’s no doubting the global accolades it would have received. In 2025, however, it becomes something less applause-worthy: a completely solid, commendable, and well-made movie that might be best enjoyed on a streaming service a few years from now.

What is The Amateur about?

CIA cryptologist (that’s a decoder, for us normies) Charlie Heller (Malek) is a remarkable asset, but his life is turned upside down when his wife is suddenly killed during a terrorist attack in London. Through his research, Charlie is able to find out who took her hostage, but is also sent suspicious documents by an unknown source that implicate his superiors.

When bosses fail to take his case seriously, Charlie issues them an ultimatum – he’ll keep quiet about their cover-up if he gets CIA training to take the killers down themselves. Initially agreeing, believing they can stop him before it’s too late, Charlie takes them all by surprise, leading Corporal Henderson (Fishburne) on a wild goose chase across Europe.

The Amateur is the Killing Eve chase you won’t remember

20th Century Studios

There is something delicious about an intercontinental cat-and-mouse act. Charlie constantly outsmarting and dodging his corrupt CIA tailers is certainly satisfying, never breaking out into a sweat (or showing a single emotion, for that matter). He goes after his targets systematically, learning more about his own capabilities along the way. Charlie’s chemistry with Henderson is strained yet forms a natural bond, which sort of makes us wish Fishburne was the one going full Morpheus instead.

For fans who appreciate the intricacies of CIA intelligence, there’s definitely some tender meat here to chew on. The Amateur is the smart man’s spy movie, more interested in logistics and strategy than outright action. Don’t assume there won’t be any explosive hand-to-hand combat, though.

As Charlie picks up the pace through Europe, the more he comes into himself, and it’s by the end that The Amateur really sings. We’re given satisfying answers to all the questions we have, and Charlie is genuinely a fantastic, well-rounded CIA asset. The Fantastic Four has nothing on a geeky guy in glasses taking vengeance for his wife.

For the most part, Malek sells the emotional distress Charlie’s in, with The Amateur frequently taking us back to his late wife. Granted, this doesn’t always stick, and could probably relax on the flashbacks a touch. But as commendable as all this is, none of this touches on the new movie‘s biggest flaw: it’s just not memorable enough.

20th Century Studios

Think of The Amateur as an advert for Carling: it’s good, but never great. Nothing that happens is going to take your breath away, make you think twice, or think it’s a role worthy of defining Rami Malek’s career. It’s difficult to put your finger on what exactly isn’t working, because no singular component is “bad,” or at fault.

Instead, it’s more a question of overall impact. There’s no question you’ll have a great time watching in the moment, but if somebody asked you the next day what you’d been up to, you’d forget to recall what you saw. It’s a frustrating thing that a well-made movie can still struggle to make an impact in this climate, perhaps saying more about the industry as a whole than anything we see on screen.

I do think there was an easier way to make The Amateur even better, and that’s by fully utilizing Laurence Fishburne. I don’t mean fully ripping off The Matrix to take us back to the good old days of 1999, but Fishburne’s exceptional action back catalog mean there so much more he could be doing with his role of Henderson.

Real action movie fans would likely pay good money to watch Fishburne kick the living crap out of any enemies placed in front of him, and he’s easily the strongest part of the film. The alternative would have been to go with a Killing Eve style of chemistry, avenging the flop of an ending the BBC gave us a few years ago. Instead, we get something lukewarm.

Dexerto Review Score: 3/5 – Good

The Amateur is about the worst thing a movie can be – fine. In eight months time, you’ll likely look back on your Letterboxd watchlist for the year and say, “Oh yeah, forgot I watched that one.” Enjoyable in the moment, but nothing that leaves any legacy or lasting impression.

Perhaps that’s good enough. Perhaps that’s what we need, plugging the gaps big franchise and unexpected small breakouts leave behind. But even so, it’s all a bit underwhelming, even when Charlie gets what he wants.

For more information on how we score TV shows and movies, check out our scoring guidelines here.