The Amateur review – Rami Malek is a brilliant code cracker lacking in charisma
James Hawes, who directed the entire first season of Slow Horses, clearly knows his way around the spy genre. Which is why this disjointed thriller about a brilliant CIA code cracker turned elite operative (Rami Malek) delivers at least some pacy thrills and globe-hopping intrigue, despite numerous issues with the screenplay, structure and casting. As Charlie Heller, Malek is one of the casting question marks. Heller possesses the kind of tech wizardry that goes beyond a credible skill set and starts to feel a bit like magic. After the death of his wife in a terrorist attack, he's lured out from behind his computer screens to do the job that his CIA colleagues seem unable or unwilling to perform: the systematic killing of everyone involved in his wife's murder. It's a promising pulpy premise, but Malek feels too wan and underpowered in the charisma department to be carrying an action flick. Two curiously unmoored scenes featuring Jon Bernthal in tantalising badass spy mode suggest a brutal hit job during the edit.
In UK and Irish cinemas
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