Rami Malek’s new film, “The Amateur,” is a remake of a Canadian film, but this version gives this vigilante spy thriller high tech upgrade and a much needed emotional charge. The titular amateur is a hastily trained CIA assassin on a personal vendetta of revenge, a mission not entirely supported by his agency. Both films are based on the 1981 Robert Littell novel of the same name. Yet without even having read the Littell novel, I know Malek’s film diverges from the novel due to advances in technology.

The Amateur (1981) ⭐️ ⭐️

The film begins in Munich. The camera follows a woman in a brown high-heeled boots, beige trench coat, red beret and reddish scarf as she walks around Munich. She works at the US Consulate. We know that she’s engaged because of a flashy ring on her finger and a photo of her and her a man we later learn is Charles.

The woman, Sarah  (Lynne Griffin), is one of 15 people caught in a hostage situation led by Schräger (Nicholas Campbell). From her passport, she is chosen by the terrorists, shot and killed on live television.

Charles is a quiet man working in the offices of the CIA in DC. This is part of the emotional vacuum of this film. In the screenplay by Robert Littel and Diana Maddox, we never see Elisabeth and Charles (John Savage) together. He is in Washington, DC. She is in Munich but expects to be back in DC soon until she has a brief but frightening meeting with death.

Charles learns about her death (19 January 1981) two hours later, from one of his supervisors. The terrorists have already boarded an airplane and fled to Prague, then under the Iron Curtain (Czechoslovakia).

Charles meets Sarah’s father, Sam Kaplan (Jan Rubeš ), as Sarah’s coffin arrives in the US and attends Sarah’s funeral. Kaplan had been one of the Jews in the concentration camps during World War II. His first family had been murdered and Sarah and Sarah’s mother were his second family. Kaplan tells Charles that to survive his grief he had a ritual: revenge. In the end, Kaplan hunted down and strangled the doctor responsible for his daughter and wife’s deaths.

From Charles’ conversation with Kaplan, we learned that Charles is a man who works with ciphers. Consulting with his managers, he learns that they will take no governmental action. He’s advised “don’t break that chain” of command. Charles is going to do much more than that.

Charles finds out that the CIA has been involved in some nefarious deeds. Using this information, Charles plans to blackmail his superiors into training him to be a CIA assassin. He advises Kaplan that if he doesn’t hear from him in three months or hears of his death, to call a certain phone number (Frank Molton, played by John Marley) and give that person the key number (90124). The CIA bosses, however, just want to buy time.

The plot shows a training montage. Charles doesn’t excel, but he isn’t a complete failure under training. When Charles is finally dropped into Czechoslovakia, behind the Iron Curtain, his CIA bosses have already found the blackmail materials because Frank Molton is a journalist without scruples. Charles is on his own, without CIA support. However, he does get to his safe house and meets his local contact, Elisabeth (Marthe Keller).

The script doesn’t give Savage much to work with. Savage had been in the 1978 Oscar-winning war drama “The Deer Hunter” and in 1979 had been one of the lead characters (Claude Hooper Bukowski, the drafted Oklahoma boy) in the musical dramedy “Hair.” The same year, Savage starred as the emotionally damaged police officer Karl Hettinger in “The Onion Field” although most of the accolades went to James Woods who played one of the two murderers.

Savage did get nominated for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor for the Canadian Genie Awards for this film which garnered ten nominations in all. Yet I felt that the script by Littel and Diana Maddox is more tell than show and it’s hard to feel the extent of Charles’ connection with his fiancée since we never see them together.

The World in 1981

We live in a different world today in 2025 than in 1981. One thing that remains the same is our distrust of Russia which in 1981 was the Soviet Union.

In 1981, less than a decade had passed since the 1972 Summer Olympic Munich massacre when eight members of the Palestinian militant organization known as Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village and took members of the Israeli team hostage. Six Israeli coaches, five Israeli athletes, one West German police officer and five Black September members died in the 5-6 September 1972 incident.

The Iran hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran began on 4 November 1979 and ended 444 days later on 20 January 1981. “The Amateur” came out just a month shy of a year later on 11 December 1981.

The threat of terrorists and hostage situations was very real and and very recent for the US and Canadian audiences of 1981.

In 1981, computers did not dominate our lives as they do today. The Apple II personal computer was released in 1977. The Macintosh came out in 1984 (following the 1983 Lisa).  The first arcade video game was developed in 1971 (“Computer Space”). Atari released the first successful arcade video game, “Pong,” in 1972.

The Amateur (2025)

Video games do figure in the plot of the 1981 version of “The Amateur” but computers are an intrinsic part of the 2025 version. How could they not be? In Ken Nolan (“Black Hawk Down”) and Gary Spinelli’s script, computers and software programs help forward the script in ways not possible in 1981, but this never overshadows this version of Charles played by Oscar-winning (“Bohemian Rhapsody,” 2018) Rami Malek.

When we first meet Malek’s Charles “Charlie” Heller, he’s tinkering with parts of an airplane. His wife, Sarah Horowitz (Rachel Brosnahan), bought him an old airplane and Charlie is working on refurbishing it. This week, however, Sarah is off to London,  and she asks Charlie to come along, to take a risk. She’ll be gone in less than a week. Charlie is clearly not a risk taker and he believes he still has time.

Driving in from their semi-rural home, Charlie goes into work on floor -5, the Decryption and Analysis department. One gets the feeling that Charlie is most comfortable behind a computer screen or rather multiple screens. He has a contact named Inquiline, who keeps him guessing about identifying particulars, but Charlie is sure he’s communicating with a 50-something man. Some information that could be damaging to the US comes through from Inquiline, but while Charlie is somewhat bothered by it, what follows will nearly destroy him.

Sarah calls him, but he’s busy and tells her they’ll talk later. But, he won’t hear from her again. Sarah is killed by terrorists. In his grief, he uses all the assets of the CIA to first review her death from various angles and then to identify and  locate her killers, but the case is of little interest to his superiors. He comes up with a plan. Using the damaging information, he sets up a deadman’s kill-switch. If he doesn’t check in at specific intervals, the information will be forwarded to news agencies. In return, he asks to be trained as a CIA operative and assassin. Director Moore (Holt McCallany) laughs, saying, “I don’t think you could beat a 90-year-old nun in a wrestling match,”

The CIA reluctantly agrees, sending him away to  train under Robert Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) while they begin to tear apart his office and his house and search through his movements and contacts. Charlie is a ridiculous fail on the shooting range. This nerdy guy must have never played any video games involving guns. Yet he excels in the bomb making.

Charlie, to avenge his wife’s murder, will travel to Paris, Istanbul, Madrid and Constanta (Romania). He will meet Inquiline (Caitríona Balfe) and learn how to be less obviously American. There will be some situations similar to the first film and for those who don’t know, yes, there is actually a hotel that has a pool that forms a bridge across the roof. The ending in this film differs from the Canadian version.

Malek’s Charlie has a rabbity nervous energy. His large, protruding eyes seem brimming with anxiety. His voice quivers and chokes. He’s not calm in life amongst his fellow humans. That’s contrasted by the easy warmth of Brosnahan’s Sarah. In this screenplay, Charlie is haunted by Sarah. He sees her (as we do) in moments after her death such as when he’s alone in a hotel.

Fishburne again plays a weary and wise mentor and is a good contrast to Malek’s often awkward Charlie.

There’s some science involved, even beyond the surveillance satellites, access to CCTV videos and facial recognition. My scientist husband was entertained by the amateur assassination solutions. Both of us appreciated Malek’s emotional performance. In addition I thought that Malek’s ethnic background (Egyptian) helped, making him blend in better when he was supposed to be in Istanbul, Madrid or even Romania. There were moments when Malek’s Charlie was on the run that the editing (Jonathan Amos), cinematography (Martin Ruhe) and direction by James Hawes (“One Life” and “Doctor Who”) were highly effective, having me at the edge of my seat–and we watched in IMAX reclining seats.

“The Amateur” has more emotional pull than most action spy films and is a much more satisfying film than the Canadian movie. “The Amateur” will be released on 11 April 2025 in the US. I saw it in IMAX.

NB: So for those who, like me were curious about two things, here are some answer. The hotel Embassy Gardens has the Sky Pool

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inquiline comes from the Latin  “inquilinus” which means “lodger” or “tenant” and means an animal that lives in the nest, burrow or other type of abode of another animal.