Rami Malek’s workmanlike tech-revenge thriller boasts an intriguing cocktail pitch, but hitting the mark or utilizing Rachel Brosnahan, Jon Bernthal, and a scene stealing Laurence Fishburne is a bridge too far.
On the surface, Rami ‘Mr Robot’ Malek isn’t your typical action hero. He’s more of a natural antihero, or in the case of No Time To Die, a straight-up villain. But if Hollywood loves anything, it’s casting against type.
It’s partly why Taken worked so well: pitting Liam Neeson, the loveable, grief-stricken dad from Love Actually, as a man of action was risky, a gamble that changed action-thrillers, and the list of quotable Neeson lines, forever.
Now, it’s Malek’s turn to subvert expectations. Though, his leading man vehicle, a globetrotting jaunt devoid of any ‘particular set of skills’ zingers, promises a less brawny and more brainy tale compared to genre mainstays like Bourne and Bond.
As eccentrics go, Charles Heller, a sheepish CIA analyst who writes spyware and deciphers sprawls of code in a Langley basement, is familiar territory for Malek. Hunched over a code-stuffed monitor, he’s a dry, calculating Snowden type who has a penchant for solving puzzles.
It’s when his wife, a blink and you’ll miss her Rachel Brosnahan, is murdered in a terrorist attack, that his determined nature as a problem solver shifts from soulless numbers to avenging the most important person in his life.
Stonewalled by Government coverups, Charles takes matters into his own, very physically incapable hands, blackmailing his superiors so that he can be the one to find the killers.
It’s all very Taken-esq. If you swap out Neeson’s kidnapped daughter for Malek’s murdered wife, you’re in very samey waters. Though, the core of Taken was the relationship between Brian and Kimmy, a foundation that was given enough time to fully develop and make us care, and that here is rushed to the point of feeling cumbersome.
It must be said, however, that Taken lacked any kind of training montage where Brian Mills, rusty from his years of retirement, is roughhoused by Laurence Fishburne and turned into a killing machine — what was Luc Besson thinking?
Emerging from his pantomime chrysalis as the Bowery King in John Wick, Fishburne returns on top form as a Morpheus-adjacent CIA operative tasked with moulding Charlie into a less incompetent coder who could maybe, just maybe, pull the trigger.
Their prickly dynamic is the film’s best hand, as Fishburne oozes a natural warmth and gravitas that’s missing in the rest of the cast. Even Jon Bernthal, a never-ending charm machine, is downshifted into playing the kind of hard-headed operative whose entire character is just ‘testosterone’. All in all, we’ve seen this done better.
Yet, behind all the casting misfires and underbaked core is a concept with surprisingly good legs. It’s enough to make the first act feel punchy, as Charles digs into his wife’s murder, exposing a connection between the terrorists and, you guessed it, the CIA itself.
The cracks begin to show when director James Hawes (Slow Horses, One Life) is tasked with bringing the hammer down and coming good on the concept. Apart from a humorous scene where Charles consults YouTube to learn lockpicking during a break in, we’re not treated to any of the fun and games you might expect from a thriller with a genius main character.
Never does our brainy action man play with technology in the way we might expect; killing baddies here is relegated to drab explosions and a CGI swimming pool scene that probably swallowed a large chunk of the budget, money that could have been used for other, more imaginative set pieces.
For what it’s worth, Malek gives his level best as Charles, but primarily coasts through a revenge-thriller that lacks any semblance of heft. It’s a potentially fun time at the movies if you turn the thinking part of your brain off, or the part that realises all of this has been done better.
You might consider waiting for this to drop on streaming. At least then you’ll have time to consider who ‘The Amateur’ is actually referring to.
- The Amateur releases in UK theatres April 11.
