The Amateur

So whilst struggling to find something to watch on Friday night, I mindlessly scrolled through all the streaming services I have until I stumbled into Disney+, ready to carry on my rewatch of the Alien Franchise. But what I was greeted with was the latest Rami Malek effort, The Amateur. Now, let me tell you, I don’t feel like I wasted my time, however, I feel like my time could have been better spent. The story follows Rami Malek as he hunts down the mercenaries that killed his wife. And that's about as far as the story goes. It tries to add in extra engagement with his character uncovering CIA hiding their illegal activities but that plotline ultimately goes no where, with the main focus being somewhat engaging but never quite moving into the great territory.

The film itself is competently made, with each action scene being engaging and fun to watch whilst the camera work and performances are perfectly serviceable. It’s hard to say anything else really positive about this film because it falls directly into the “perfectly adequate” category. Its nothing absolutely mindblowing and its not absolutely awful either. The film never pushes itself beyond its core idea and it suffers because of that, you could have made a really interesting story about CIA corruption and someone standing up to that, losing the love of his life in the process. Having not read the book this film is based on, the original story might have explored some of these ideas but the film just feels very corporate in it’s targeted appeal. Everything seems very safe and predictable in order to appeal to the most amount of people.

The performances are doing their best, with Rachel Brosnahan being a stand out for what little screen time she actually receives. Rami Malek often feels like he’s sleepwalking through the script, as some dialogue scenes or character beats did feel like he wasn’t really invested in the story he was telling. Maybe he’s just not the type of actor to lead this type of film? Lawrence Fishburne brings a solid performance to an otherwise one note role, the script doesn’t really allow him to do anything particularly effective with it.

Overall, this film is worth your time if you want to turn your brain off for 2 hours and just watch a mindless, unfocused, somewhat generic action film. But if you’re looking for something a bit more interesting or that presents anything on a deeper level, then maybe give this one a miss…