Over the last few years, Oscar winner Rami Malek has developed quite the line in playing socially awkward, variously psychologically traumatised, somewhat eccentric geniuses who sit all across the moral spectrum. Mr. Robot's Elliot Alderson, No Time To Die's villainous Safin, Bohemian Rhapsody's Freddie Mercury... the list goes on. In The Amateur, Slow Horses alum and One Life director James Hawes' upcoming revenge thriller, Malek is CIA decoder Charlie Heller, a man whose life is turned violently upside down when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a terrorist attack. In the tense first trailer for the film, which boasts the likes of Laurence Fishburne, Caitriona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, and Michael Stuhlbarg among its starry ensemble, it very quickly becomes clear that Charlie is set to become a worthy addition to Malek's resumé of unorthodox mavericks. Check it out below:
Move over John Wick, bon voyage Nobody, in a bit Monkey Man — there's a new one-man vengeance machine in town. Sure, Charlie Heller may not be handy with a set of nunchucks, the interior of a bus, or an improvised shiv ("You're just not a killer, Charlie" states Fishburne's gruff CIA handler), but — as is evidenced here — what he does have is a noggin' full of techy know-how and a belly full of fire to avenge his wife's death. Cue the combined might of the less-than-supportive CIA struggling to keep tabs on Charlie's whereabouts as he goes rogue and deals out death in increasingly inventive ways, going full Kevin McCallister on his wife's murderers by lethally decompressing the glass on a sky pool, improvising explosives on the fly, and using his unassuming demeanour to evade both the good and bad guys. It's taut, tense looking stuff shot through with a grounded, DIY quality that feels spiritually of a piece with Hawes' work on Slow Horses.
And here's the official synopsis for the movie, adapted by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli from Robert Littell's novel: "Charlie Heller (Malek) 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."
With Hawes at the helm, Malek leading a stacked line-up, and this first trailer promising a slick-as-you-like revenger with a tight espionage angle, this one may be called The Amateur but the movie itself looks anything but. We'll find out whether Charlie's relentless pursuit of bloody vengeance helps him grieve his wife, reconcile his trauma, and gain a new lease of life — or just trigger a dormant, franchisable badass assassin — when The Amateur hits cinemas on 11 April, 2025.