THE AMATEUR
A grieving husband's cold, methodical hunt for justice — smart, tense, and mostly clean-handed.
Should You Watch It?
This one earns its four stars. Rami Malek plays a CIA analyst whose wife is murdered in Paris, and when his own agency drags its feet on justice, he blackmails his way into training to hunt the killers himself. What follows is a genuinely superb cat-and-mouse thriller — Charlie has to outwit corrupt CIA officials and hardened mercenaries at the same time, and the film keeps that tension taut for two hours.
It also lands its ending well. The story ultimately upholds real justice and real marital devotion, which is rarer in this genre than it should be. The cost of admission: nearly 20 obscenities and profanities, and violence that's constant and intense, if bloodless.
The one thing to sit with: Charlie's methods early on drift into revenge dressed as justice, and the film doesn't always flag the difference. Adults and mature teens will get the most out of this one — and should go in eyes open.
In short: an excellent thriller, best reserved for older teens and adults.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESCharlie Heller decrypts secrets for the CIA. He stays home while his wife travels to a conference in Paris — a small decision he'll never stop regretting. When she's killed there by masked men, Charlie learns something his grieving heart wasn't prepared for: the killers were working, unofficially, for his own boss. When the agency won't deliver justice, Charlie decides to get trained and deliver it himself.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this thriller does its job about as well as the genre allows. The plotting is disciplined — Charlie has to stay a step ahead of both the men who killed his wife and the officials who'd rather he disappeared, and that double pressure keeps the film moving. The ending, in particular, is called out as genuinely satisfying and touching, which is no small feat for a spy movie this plot-heavy.
The Worldview
At bottom, this is a moral film. It wants a murderer brought to justice, and it wants a marriage honored even after death — Charlie's wife dies protecting another hostage, a sacrificial act that echoes something Scripture treats as love's highest form. Government corruption gets exposed and rebuked rather than excused. That's a good deal more moral clarity than most thrillers bother with.
But the film isn't cleanly biblical about how justice gets pursued. Charlie operates in a world of espionage and personal revenge, and the story doesn't always distinguish justice from vengeance — there's real moral relativism in how he blackmails his way to his goal and hunts men down himself rather than through any lawful process. That's worth naming plainly, even inside a film this well made.
The ache underneath all of it is old and human: a man who lost what he loved most, refusing to let the loss go unanswered. Scripture takes that ache seriously — and also redirects it: "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God" (Romans 12:19). This film gets the longing for justice right. It's less sure about who justice belongs to.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Ultimately a moral worldview about bringing a spy/terrorist to justice, who murdered the hero’s wife in cold blood, but the hero operates in the world of espionage and out of revenge, so there’s some moral relativism to his actions, plus hero’s wife sacrifices herself to take the place of another hostage, which ends in the wife’s death
Foul Language
16 obscenities (including one “f” word where the hero is running through a crowd and several “s” words), one GD profanity, one OMG profanity
Violence
Strong and intense, but not bloody or extreme, action violence includes a shootout occurs in a hallway (seen through a surveillance camera, mercenaries/terrorists take people hostage, leader shoots hero’s wife in cold blood offscreen (footage only shows him pointing a gun at her head, but the footage is replayed several times), hero secretly invades a room with an allergy booth in a clinic to threaten a woman to give up the whereabouts of the killer (he unleashes pollen into the booth to force her to talk), woman chokes, but hero has to let her out, and there’s a fight between them, hero unleashes a flash bang with smoke to escape a potential assassin, hero explodes a glass encased swimming pool hanging between two buildings to force mercenary to talk, hero rigs an explosion to threaten another mercenary, character gets shot dead during a chase sequence with lots of gunfire, a lengthy fight scene between two men ends up with one man shot dead, hero knocked unconscious
Sex
No sex scenes or sexual immorality, but widowed hero does comfort an older widow whose husband was murdered years ago by Russian spies (they’re hiding from people who want to kill them if given the chance)
Nudity
Upper male nudity in two scene showing a man swimming
Alcohol Use
Some alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Government corruption ,but it’s rebuked, and hero blackmails two corrupt CIA officials get him some training to hunt down the men who killed his wife.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Charlie chooses to pursue his wife's killers himself rather than trust the system meant to deliver justice. Where's the line between righteous justice and personal vengeance?
Romans 12:19 · Deuteronomy 32:35The corrupt officials in this film cover up their own wrongdoing to protect themselves. What does Scripture say about hidden sin eventually coming to light?
Luke 8:17 · Ephesians 5:11Charlie's wife dies protecting another hostage. What does that sacrifice say about love, and where else have you seen that kind of love?
John 15:13Charlie blackmails his boss to get what he wants — even though his goal, justice for his wife, is good. Can a good end justify wrong means?
Romans 3:8 · Proverbs 21:2The Final Word
This is a sharp, satisfying thriller with a genuinely moral ending — a rare combination — but it's a PG-13 film that plays like an R in intensity, with heavy language and constant tension throughout. So here's our answer, the same one we opened with: worth the trip — older teens and adults. For younger viewers, check out our instead.
