The Amateur

...a lot smarter and sharper than most mainstream moves in cineplexes these days.

He’s not even competent with a gun. Instead, Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is a desk-bound cryptographer, a “nerdy fella who works on computers”, as one character calls him.

...feels like a welcome variation on the kind of “guy on the run” espionage movies we got regularly back in the '90s.

Every time The Amateur starts to crackle with tension, it crashes into the brittle spine of Littell's source novel.

Rami Malek is a brilliant code cracker lacking in charisma.