The Amateur, seen at The Light Cinema in Wisbech, was enjoyable if a tad too formulaic

Film review: The Amateur (12A) - seen at The Light, Wisbech

Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan and Laurence Fishburne

Director: James Hawes Run time: Two hours and three minutes

Having seen this action thriller and given myself a good 24 hours to mull it over, I’m still not quite sure what to make of it.

It’s a bit like a more subtle version of the Death Wish or John Wick-type genre, and it certainly kept me entertained until the end - but it was all a tad too formulaic, and the ending was rather a damp squib.

Rami Malek stars as Charlie Heller, a CIA decoder who enjoys an idyllic life with his wife Sarah in their lovely countryside home.

But when his Agency supervisors refuse to take action after Charlie’s wife is murdered in a London terrorist attack, our hero decides to track down her killers and slay them one by one.

The CIA top brass will have none of it, but when Charlie threatens to expose their wrongdoings, they agree to train him just to buy time while they try to find out where he has hidden the information he has on them.

This part of the movie provides the first twist in the plot, and there are a couple more as Charlie moves from country to country, avenging those who killed Sarah in various ingenious ways.

Malek is impressive throughout, and his reactions to bomb blasts, gunshots, and face-offs really do portray those of a man totally out of his comfort zone. Fishburne too puts in a good shift as Charlie’s mentor Henderson.

But as clever and unexpected as the second and third deaths are, the first is clunky, and the final encounter is underwhelming. There are also too many occasions when Charlie riding his luck just becomes too darn unrealistic.

But it was a decent idea to take the action hero away from the muscle-bound hunks and give it to a less likely suspect, and the film, overall, was enjoyable.

By Jeremy Ransome

Rating: 7/10