NEW YORK, June 20 (UPI) -- Director James Hawes says his new action-thriller, The Amateur, works as well as it does because Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek is believable as Charlie Heller, a CIA cryptographer with zero field skills, and makes viewers instantly care about him.
"He has such intelligence as an actor, as a man, so you believe the brains behind the guy," Hawes told UPI in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
"He has that charming, accessible awkwardness, so you feel that he has a vulnerability that you want to exploit. Also, as an actor, he's incredibly brave, in every way. He throws himself into stunts. He throws himself in emotionally, so I think it just engages you because you travel with him."
Co-starring Jon Bernthal, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson and Laurence Fishburne, the adaptation of Robert Littell's best-selling 1981 novel follows Charlie (Malek) as he tries to track down the people responsible for his wife Sarah's murder, against the wishes of his bosses at the Agency.
There's no going back.
