A REVENGE THRILLER WITH UNEXPECTED TWISTS AND TURNS

Is Rami Malek set to become the next Jason Bourne?

- SCOTT GARCEAU

Rami Malek, who won an Oscar for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, seems an unlikely pick to become the next Jason Bourne, but in the 20th Century Fox thriller The Amateur, directed by James Hawes (Slow Horses), he's more than that: he's the producer as well as the star. After winning an Oscar and playing a Bond villain, it must be refreshing to play an introverted character that people underestimate, somewhat like his Elliot character in breakout role Mr. Robot. Same, but different.

Malek plays vengeance-seeking CIA decoder Charlie Heller, slowly walking away from an explosion about to happen, somewhat like every "hero walks away from fireball" trailer we've seen in action movie history — until it finally does go off, and he cringes from the boom-boom and darts out of frame.

"I won't say this is an iteration (of the Mr. Robot character), but there are similarities," he says in a Zoom call. "I gravitate to those characters who are at the fragile intersections of feeling broken, maybe brilliant at the same time, and going through some sort of grief and persevering."

Grief is the underlying motif for Charlie after losing his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) in a London hostage taking that plays out on CCTV cameras. Charlie, a whiz at algorithms, reconstructs the masked faces that held his wife at gunpoint on camera. He wants revenge. The CIA wants him to back off.