The 2025 Spy/Thriller The Amateur may just surprise you. It did me. The film is much better than you think. It turned up on Hulu rather quickly and this usually feels like doom. As I have stated before, that streaming platform is where movies go to die.
Not The Amateur.
The Story
Heller is a decoding whiz who works for the CIA. His wife is murdered in London during a terrorist incident. Heller’s superiors are backed into a corner by him. He is tracking all the people responsible for his wife’s death.
The Amateur Cast
Rami Malik is Heller.
Rachel Brosnahan is Sarah.
Holt McCallany is Director Moore.
Julianne Nicholson is Director O’Brien.
Laurence Fishburne is Henderson.
Caitríona Balfe is Inquiline.
Michael Stuhlbarg is Schiller.
Why The Amateur Works
Director James Hawes, he who started the brilliant Slow Horses out of the gate, shows his chops here. This is possible because of the basic story itself. At the risk of being repetitive; story is everything. If a film has all bells and whistles in abundance, but no cohesive story, it is doomed.
The screenplay, adapted from Robert Little’s once out of print book, works. Sure, it is about spies, something we have to rely upon via fiction, to understand. Smiley’s People, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, et al. Most of us learned about these secret workers from John Le Carré, the grittier side of espionage. We also relied upon Ian Fleming with Bond, flashy and fun, as well as the American homegrown spy; Matt Helm.
*Helm was Donald Hamilton’s answer to Bond and despite the comedic turn of the films, was a pretty brutal guy. It works.*
Simplicity
The Amateur is entertaining because of the simplicity of the tale. Man loses wife to terrorist. He then goes to exact revenge: “Sarah mattered,” Heller tells Schiller; twice. This simple story allows the puzzle loving decoder his chance to be Bond.
His journey, his trials, all work. This is solid entertainment. We do not have those whiz bang over the top kills en masse. Heller is specific and fighting against his own natural inclination. As he continues with his personal self imposed mission, he becomes a hero.
He uses the system to defeat the system.
The Verdict
The Amateur has literally leapt onto my 2025 list of favorites. No one shows angst and internal grief like Malik. Fishburne brings his usual weighty gravitas and at his age, the man can still convincingly work a fight.
This is a solid 5 star effort. I expected to be bored but instead found myself glued to the screen. *As John D. MacDonald once said, “Story, dammit, story.”* (sic) The film is streaming on Hulu right now. Head on over and check it out. It has a stellar cast and a stonking great, albeit simple, storyline.
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