Worth: $10.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Andrea Riseborough, Zoe Saldaña, Ed Begley Jr., Taylor Swift, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers
Intro:
… filled with contradictions, but the biggest one is the movie itself.
David O. Russell attempts to recreate the success of American Hustle with another ostensibly “true” story. The title card of Amsterdam reads “A lot of this actually happened,” and instead of the FBI ABSCAM operation of American Hustle, Amsterdam deals with the 1933 Whitehouse Putsch otherwise known as the Business Plot.
Like American Hustle, the film features an all-star cast, but unlike American Hustle, the chaotic energy of the film is a cover for an unholy mess of genres that never gel and prove that Russell may have just lost his touch when it comes to putting great talent on the screen and giving them a provisionally interesting plot to play around with.
Amsterdam is a historical comedy thriller with a contemporary message about keeping an eye on the rise of fascism and how business interests of the elites will trump democracy if given an opportunity.
The film revolves around three central characters: Christian Bale’s deregistered doctor, Burt Berendsen; John David Washington as Harold Woodman, his WWI buddy and now lawyer; and Margot Robbie as Valerie, the mysterious volunteer nurse they met in 1918 as she cared for them in a Belgian hospital.
The trio form a bond that continues after the war when they move to Amsterdam where Valerie makes Dada art, and they enjoy the roaring 1920s in the progressive city. Harold and Valerie fall in love (although that’s a hard sell as Robbie and Washington seem to have zero chemistry) but the trio is broken up when Burt decides he has to return to his WASP wife, Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough) and live his “real life.”
The structure of the film doesn’t introduce the trio immediately. Rather, it begins in 1933 with Berendsen, now running an illegal clinic for war veterans, being asked by Woodman to perform an autopsy on the man who created their mixed-race army unit during WWI. General Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.) lies in a pine box with his grieving daughter Liz (Taylor Swift) insisting that he was a healthy man and that his death on his way back from Europe is suspicious. Indeed, it is suspicious, and the autopsy performed by Berendsen and nurse Irma St. Clair (Zoe Saldaña) suggests that the General died from heavy metal poisoning. Soon, there is another murder and Berendsen and Woodman find themselves on the run from not only the cops but mysterious gangsters (including an unrecognisable Timothy Olyphant) working for an unnamed power.
There’s so much going on in Amsterdam that even a cursory run-through of the plot is exhausting. The film constantly switches genres, pulls out transparent red-herrings, and relies entirely too much on Bale’s character to guide the audience through a mystifying script.
Yes, it is funny in sections, but the comedy isn’t delivered by the characters you’d expect. Chris Rock turns up as a war buddy of Berendsen and Woodman but seems to be there to deliver the obvious line about prime suspect Black guys being around the corpses of dead white guys. A couple of bumbling detectives (Matthias Schoenaerts and Alessandro Nivola) get some good material to work with, but they get lost in the melee. Michael Shannon and Mike Myers turn up at various points as ornithologists and spies whose cover is as glass manufacturers who provide Berendsen with his glass-eye to replace the one he lost in the war.
Anyway, back to the story, such as it is. As Berendsen and Woodman race to prove their innocence, they end up at the mansion of the wealthy industrialist Tom Voze (Rami Malek) and his clearly questionable wife, Liz (Anya Taylor-Joy). Who should they find but Valerie who is Tom’s sister and living the reclusive life of an invalid. Tom is attentive to the pair and especially interested in them connecting with retired General and veteran’s rights activist Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro). Before the hubbub of the murder, Burt and Harold had been trying to organise a gala event for veterans, and Tom and Liz are extremely keen on the pair convincing General Dillenbeck to give the keynote speech.
Valerie escapes the Voze mansion with Burt and Harold, and once again the three are united. They convince Dillenbeck to attend the gala and make a speech. Dillenbeck has been constantly approached by a shadow organisation to be the leader of a push against FDR, using his influence on veterans. They set up a plot to expose the obviously fascistic group and their industrialist leaders.
Robbie, Bale, and Washington are all game actors and do their best with a profoundly messy script. With the exception of Woodman, the characters are unbelievable. Bale’s ever optimistic Berendsen is both over and underwritten – he makes almost no sense. Robbie’s Valerie is more interesting but it’s hard to fathom how such a force of nature became a recluse (albeit an over-medicated one). De Niro is a seasoned champ, and honestly doesn’t have to do much to inject upright decency into Dillenbeck (a stand-in for the real life General Smedly Butler).
Amsterdam is a bloated jumble that has the subtlety of a brick and feels like Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) and David O. Russell had a lot of lunches together and made a bet who could treat their audiences with more contempt by presuming they haven’t been paying attention to anything that has been going on for the past ten years.
Although Amsterdam does have moments of comedy and pathos, what we get in the end is Russell’s star-studded moral tale that somehow tries to give the impression that love (and friendship) conquers all, but history and greed are inexorably tied to repeat, and only the brave and optimistic can sway the tide. If Russell had taken one of Berendsen’s experimental pills and chilled out a bit, we might have been given a cohesive film instead of one that both rushes at a manic pace and drags. Amsterdam is filled with contradictions, but the biggest one is the movie itself.
