O Amador

It's quite adept... A tribute to "nerd power."

The Amateur is a frustratingly old-school thriller in which the most modern element is not the top-notch computer hacking that's crucial to its plotline, but focusing its story of a "wife guy."

The most annoying thing about The Amateur is how competent it is.

It's constructed with a breezy sense of confidence.

For all the scenes set in spy movie locales like Paris and Romania, "The Amateur" is a rather dull affair. Director James Hawes can't stage an effective action sequence; you rarely get a good idea of the geography of a scene.

Whilst it was on, I enjoyed it.

A juicy, stunt-fueled CIA cat-and-mouser.

All of the elements are there, but the film is frustratingly inert.

Filmmaker James Hawes keeps The Amateur clicking along competently, if not plausibly, through loose ends, loose characters and some blather from the head of the CIA about ethics.

Though the movie's structure is basically that of The Fugitive, Mr. Malek is incapable of providing the audience with an emotional hook. His screenwriters are equally lacking in core competence.

Only a hair overlong at two hours, this is the kind of disposable airport spy thriller that Hollywood rarely makes anymore, and which generally plays fine, maybe best, on cable over a lazy Saturday afternoon.

"The Amateur" falls victim to its own leaky plotting, which suggests more complex twists than it actually has up its sleeves.

It's a promising premise-a nerdy CIA decoder (Rami Malek) turns unlikely action hero when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is murdered by terrorists-but the movie promises more than it delivers in terms of suspense, escalating tension and a reason for being.

... a film neither here nor there.

Charlie is both too savvy (when it comes to tech stuff) and too hapless (when it comes to spycraft) to fit the bill, and the film ends with more of a shrug than a revelation, or even a gut punch.

Malek returns to his "Mr. Robot" persona in this tech-centric but slightly dour thriller.

Charlie's capacities are fascinating, but it's his limitations, including a deeply wounded psyche, that make the film so much more interesting than the average genre piece.

Cold-blooded revenge is served up on a fancy plate in "The Amateur," a movie at odds with itself that nevertheless chugs along in perfectly watchable fashion.

Malek and director James Hawes never put us in Heller's shoes, keeping us at a distance through every choice they make, from Malek's quirky performance to a color palette so depressingly underlit that it made me want to scream.

"The Amateur" may not be memorable or make sense, but it benefits from a strong cast, it looks glossy (outstanding work on the settings), the action scenes move along well and that pool scene really is pretty special.