The Amateur Parent Guide

Despite the public perception of CIA agents, Charlie (Rami Malek) is a quiet, nervous guy. He’s a cryptographic analyst - brilliant, but not exactly the picture of the cocky secret agent. When his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a London terrorist attack, Charlie is horrified to learn that the Agency has been compromised and is unlikely to investigate her death. So, being a genius, he blackmails his boss at the Agency with the material he’s uncovered. In return for keeping the secret, Charlie wants to kill his wife’s murderers himself. He’s already identified the four people responsible and knows where most of them are. All Charlie needs is some field training so he can survive long enough to complete his self-appointed mission. But blackmailing the CIA is seldom a solid foundation for a working relationship, and soon Charlie is being chased by just about everybody. And he’s not willing to give up until he finishes the job.

Rami Malek is the secret weapon in what is otherwise a bog-standard espionage/revenge thriller. The Amateur doesn’t have any embarrassingly bad low points, but it doesn’t have any notable high points either. It’s got a high-stakes plot, admittedly burdened with some truly goofy twists, but it somehow comes out low-energy. The production is consistent - consistently mediocre. That’s an achievement of its own, somehow.

I didn’t actually mind any of that. The film is a lazy river of a spy thriller that you just curiously float through. I did manage to get kind of sucked in, despite the blatant madness of the premise. Family audiences might find a few speed bumps, though, mostly to do with violence. Unsurprisingly, the CIA is not a kind and gentle humanitarian organizations, so we get regular depictions of torture, murder, and general mayhem. It is, after all, a revenge movie. On the other hand, there’s no sexual content, and only brief drinking, and a dozen or so profanities.

The Amateur is a totally reasonable way to kill two hours – even if the movie should probably be about 15 minutes shorter. It may not have highs or lows, but it has a pretty stable middle, and while that isn’t going to get you very far on a dating profile, it works just fine for the movies.