Film Review of the Week

Thriller

The Amateur (12A)

Review: Grief warps a mild-mannered widower into a hardened assassin in a slow-burning espionage thriller directed by James Hawes, based on Robert Littrell’s 1981 novel which has already been filmed with John Savage in the title role. This glossy new iteration of The Amateur written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli trades the Cold War setting of the original for the drone warfare and hi-tech surveillance of the modern era, and casts Oscar winner Rami Malek as the brilliant cryptographer who wreaks havoc in the name of love lost.

Many of the well-executed action sequences are spoilt, annoyingly, in the trailer, so there will be few surprises if you have already sifted through the two-minute promo for Hawes’ picture. The central character’s murky morality becomes increasingly unpalatable when innocent bystanders risk becoming collateral damage. Malek’s nuanced performance ramps up the social awkwardness. Coupled with his physical slightness compared to a traditional action hero, it’s relatable when one CIA superior taunts him by suggesting a 90-year-old nun could beat him in an arm-wresting match.

Alas, Hawes does not treat us to some sinew-straining muscle flexing in a wimple. Instead, he sets pacing to pedestrian as the globe-trotting plot blesses Malek’s vengeful spouse with excessive good fortune to single-handedly bring down a hardened criminal network without a big sleep in a hospital bed or on a mortuary slab. I guess that’s what they mean by beginner’s luck.

Charles Heller (Malek) works in the CIA’s decryption and analysis department in Langley, and reports to deputy director Alex Moore (Holt McCallany). One of Charles’s contacts (Caitriona Balfe) provides damning evidence of wrongdoing within the hallowed halls of the CIA. Soon after, his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a terrorist outrage in London. Tapping into security cameras protecting the English capital, Charles uses facial recognition software to identify Sarah’s killers led by Sean Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg).

Director Moore is reluctant to act, so Charles takes matters into his own hands. He defies CIA protocols to gain mission-specific training under veteran operative Robert Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) so can murder Schiller and his associates. “You can’t do what I do no matter how much I train you. You’re just not a killer,” Henderson warns his protege. Charles’s revenge mission risks an international incident and newly-installed CIA director Samantha O’Brien (Julianne Nicholson) is compelled to act.

The Amateur recounts a simple tear-stained storyline as a series of stakeouts, chases and explosive final reckonings which lack the urgency that would surely befit a man on the run from the CIA. Malek keeps us at arm’s length from his would-be soldier, so it’s difficult to be wholeheartedly invested in his daredevil odyssey, or care if he makes it to the end credits with air in his lungs. Hawes’s film never comes close to being out of breath.

Thriller

Drop (15)

Review: Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon’s high-stakes thriller does just enough with its simple and ingenious premise and that’s more than enough to hold our attention in a vice-like grip for 95 delicious, nerve-jangling minutes. Set predominantly inside an impeccably designed fine dining restaurant called Palate with breathtaking views of the Chicago skyline at night, Drop orchestrates a deadly game of cat and mouse between an emotionally scarred single mother and an unseen aggressor during a trepidatious first romantic date.

Screenwriters Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach are ruthlessly efficient with their dramatic set-up, serving just enough back story and heart-tugging cuteness to have us rooting for Meghann Fahy’s heroine as she plays a hi-tech battle of wits with a merciless adversary, who can access the restaurant’s security cameras and sees and hears her every movement and word. The whodunnit element of Landon’s picture is deeply satisfying. Suspicion shifts between supporting characters to cast everyone in a distrustful light.

Artful misdirection and bluffs build to a frenetic and bloodthirsty finale that doles out violence first to women and a cherubic child. Drop practises equality with bullets and fists. Fahy delivers a compelling and emotionally engaging lead performance and she generates palpable on-screen sparks with co-star Brandon Sklenar, last seen in It Ends With Us.

Single mother Violet (Fahy) has slowly pieced her life together after the death of her abusive partner (Michael Shea) from a fatal gunshot wound. After three months of exchanging messages with press photographer Henry (Sklenar), Violet agrees to go on a first date at a swanky high-rise restaurant while younger sister Jen (Violett Beane) babysits her son Toby (Jacob Robinson). During the meal, Violet receives a series of strange messages on the DigiDrop app, which requires the unknown sender to be no more than 50 feet away.

One communication reveals a masked man with a gun at her home, who will murder Jen and Toby unless the single mother does exactly as instructed. Unable to seek help from Henry or anyone in the restaurant, Violet races against the clock to deduce her tormentor from possible suspects including a bartender (Gabrielle Ryan), the restaurant’s hostess (Sarah McCormack), an effusive waiter (Jeffery Self), the sleazy pianist (Ed Weeks), a bumbling blind dater (Reed Diamond) and a lone diner (Travis Nelson), who claims to be waiting for his sister.

Drop delivers on its promise with confidence and style, nimbly dodging a couple of plot holes in the moment that only become glaring in hindsight. The script sticks largely to its sadistic logic and milks fat droplets of tension from Violet’s skin-crawling discomfort. Action-oriented flourishes in the closing act exert the greatest strain on credibility but by that point, we’re sufficiently invested to go with the crazy flow.