Born and raised in the heart of the famous "mecca of cinema," the hot, radiant and electrical Los Angeles, the actor who knew how to play a prisoner of the virtual world ten years ago decided to leave the cave to burn in another hell: the real world's one. Rami Malek, known for playing the legendary Freddie Mercury in the not so legendary Bohemian Rhapsody, is actually more recognized for his role as Elliot Alderson, or actually Mr. Robot. A cybernetics genius who could make a fool of any hacker of the world in a matter of seconds and who also suffers from clinical depression, dissociative identity disorder and paranoia, among other pathologies.
The role of this extremely nervous nerd willing to destroy the whole system fitted him like a glove and, several years after that series' ending, Malek's brilliant figure slowly started to disappear in the cinematic environment. The 2018 Academy Award for Best Actor and his decent role as Bond's villain in the ending of Daniel Craig's era are far behind, but life's twists and turns gave him a new opportunity: to play Mr. Robot once again, although not precisely officially. In the new adaptation of Robert Littell's homonymous novel, the actor with Egyptian roots returns to do what he likes the most: expressing himself nervously in front of a camera as if he was a rookie in his work. Curiously, The Amateur is just that. But with a twist.
Charles Heller is a nerd who works five floors underground in the CIA's main building, known as the "guy who fixes computers" in the Decryption and Analysis Department. The shy man spends his time looking at eight monitors while decrypting potential infiltrated communications and interfering in people's lives left and right. Let's say he's spying everything we do since we grant him the right to do so… let's suppose. He has a pretty calm life together with his wife Sarah in a cozy house in the middle of the countryside. Every time she asks him if he wants to join her on her work flights, he declines. This may sound pretty normal, it's just that, unfortunately, the last no he says is uttered within the first minutes…
Saying that the protagonist's wife dies within the first quarter of an hour isn't a spoiler of any kind, and that's because of two reasons. Firstly, because this is literally revealed in the official synopsis and previews and, secondly, because her death turns out to be the protagonist's main driving force to make decisions in the whole movie. Malek plays the typical nobody who wants to take the law into his own hands, even knowing he might probably leave empty-handed. Don't expect an antihero like Denzel Washington who spreads slaps and several punches bare-handed because you won't find it. So where does our underestimated "equalizer" stand?
The Amateur is a half-baked revenge thriller. The thing is, there's only a few things as old and exciting as the feeling of revenge. Something so primitive as sometimes unnecessary. Yes, in this film we also hear a character uttering the classic "And what do you win by killing me? You will end up lowering yourself to my level." Nonetheless, in a nutshell, the line is thinly drawn between the inevitable desire for wanting to kill his wife's murderers that encourages the character and what he ends up doing. Personally, I consider myself the type of person who likes to go all in but who also likes to see others go all in. And when I use the expression "go all in," I'm referring to literally leaving aside all kinds of political correctness and any other filter that prevents me from feeling accomplished in the matter.
Being completely honest, if I were to experience what happens to the protagonist, I wouldn't hesitate to go all in. But Malek plays a nerd who isn't a killer, and I don't know what I would actually do in his place. So how do you implement a plan to eliminate several criminals when you don't have even a hint of criminal knowledge? Using the higher percentage of your brain. After discovering that his wife's murderers are the same people some CIA seniors are collaborating with to carry out undercover, unofficial—and pretty dark—operations, Heller decides to take matters into his own hands, but not precisely in the way revenge cinema has gotten us used to.
The character tries to be someone to later realize he isn't, and maybe this is The Amateur's biggest flaw. I don't know if this comes from its script, if it's too faithful to the novel—which I haven't read—or if it's a combination of both weaknesses. The thing is, director James Hawes' new movie sometimes makes pretty huge mistakes, but it later makes up for them with some plot twists. I would say the film is more of a "brain revenge" in which its executor makes premeditated decisions before reaching the most rushed ones. But all this is gradually developed in the journey of this antihero, who initially—and after dodging the CIA's "intelligence"—decides to travel to Paris to look for his long-awaited revenge, but he then starts realizing he isn't who he wants to be. He's a computer nerd and there's nothing that can change that.
As from this personal realization—and also our own—a hunt in the best criminal mind style with endless economic and narrative resources is let loose according to what the plot asks for, and is in this intermezzo where the thriller gets lost. The villain ends up being extremely redundant and, even though we may not see the plot twist coming, this isn't a good enough reason to give a lot of merit to a movie that will be remembered as much as what I ate for lunch on February 17, 2004.
Published on ABRIL 14, 2025, 12:44 PM | UTC-GMT -3
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