Rami Malek wants revenge in globetrotting film 'The Amateur'

Before Jack Ryan was introduced into the culture, Robert Littell imagined Charlie Heller, a quiet, CIA cryptographer who goes rogue on a quest for vengeance after his love is killed in a terrorist act. As stars of “The Amateur” in theatres on Friday, Rami Malek gets to be both skittish nerd and coolly competent angel of death. He’s the homebody and perpetual rule-follower who in his griefstricken madness decides to blackmail his bosses and go on an international killing spree to get the people responsible for her death.

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The story is based on a book published in 1981 — a product of the Cold War context that will soon erode as the Soviet empire starring John Le Carre. But even with the Iron Curtain and the Holocaust in its DNA, it also has the kind of foundation that’s essentially evergreen in Hollywood. There’s tragedy, drama, cinematic globetrotting and a fish-out-of-water story that’s a little more relatable than watching some preternaturally talented superspy (at least in theory).