Rami Malek seeks vengeance in the 2025 new movie The Amateur. The action/spy/thriller is an adaptation of the Robert Littell novel of the same name, with the director of Slow Horses season 1 behind the camera.
This is actually the second adaptation of Littell’s novel, with the previous effort coming in 1981 starring John Savage and Christopher Plummer and directed by Charles Jarrott. Unfortunately, that version of The Amateur isn’t easy to find as it’s not available on-demand.
But the new version of The Amateur is here, and we've got everything you need to know about it directly below.
The Amateur how to watch
The Amateur is now playing in movie theaters worldwide.
The Amateur cast
Rami Malek leads the way in The Amateur as CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller. Malek is an Oscar-winning actor (Bohemian Rhapsody) who has some familiarity with the spy genre. He played the villain in the James Bond movie No Time to Die, then on TV starred in the corporate espionage thriller Mr. Robot and in season 8 of 24.
He’s surrounded by a stellar supporting cast, which includes Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Caitríona Balfe (Outlander), Jon Bernthal (The Bear), Michael Stuhlbarg (The Instigators), Holt McCallany (The Iron Claw), Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown), Adrian Martinez (Focus), Danny Sapani (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) and Laurence Fishburne (Megalopolis).
The Amateur plot
Ken Nolan (no relation to Christopher Nolan) and Gary Spinelli wrote the screenplay based on Littell’s novel. Here is the official synopsis:
“Charlie Heller is a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder for the CIA working out of a basement office at headquarters in Langley whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to take action, he takes matters into his own hands, embarking on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible, his intelligence serving as the ultimate weapon for eluding his pursuers and achieving his revenge.”
The Amateur reviews
Read WTW's The Amateur review to find out what our reviewer thought about the movie.
As for the general consensus from critics, as of April 14 the movie has a "Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Amateur trailer
Watch the official trailer for The Amateur right here:
Also check out these clips and features for some additional looks at the spy thriller:
The Amateur director James Hawes
Despite The Amateur only being James Hawes second feature film as a director (the other was the Anthony Hopkins movie One Life), he is a veteran TV director whose credits go back to the 90s.
Most notably he directed all six episodes of Slow Horses season 1, but he has also directed episodes of Raised by Wolves, Snowpiercer, Black Mirror, The Alienist, Penny Dreadful and more.
The Amateur behind the scenes
Part of adapting The Amateur for today’s audiences was updating some details of the story. The original novel is set for a large part in Prague, which was once a hotbed of spies during the Cold War. However, as Hawes notes in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, that’s not the case anymore. So instead he decided to change the location to Istanbul, saying, “It feels a bit more dangerous in current history.”
As for some of the other parties working behind the scenes, The Amateur is a 20th Century Studios movie, alongside Hutch Parker Entertainment and Seed Productions. It’s being produced by Joel B. Michaels, Hutch Parker and Dan Wilson; Malek is an executive producer.
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