Among others, Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington try their best to make sense of a politically ambitious potboiler.
David O. Russell’s caper movie Amsterdam, which is set in the 1930s, zooms through unexpected narrative curves with a great deal of self-confidence that it misinterprets as grace. In reality, it’s more of a shamble, like a careless person at a bar telling a fantastic story that doesn’t really mean much but seems significant to the narrator. This does not mean the movie is not worth watching—indeed, much of it is rather funny—but like a return from the pub when a loved one asks if they missed anything, you can say, “Oh, it’s always fun to see the gang, but you didn’t miss much.”
Christian Bale, who previously starred alongside Russell in The Fighter and the superior American Hustle, is the gang’s leader in this movie (a better film still). He plays Burt Berendsen in this role, a sympathetic, goofy doctor who gives medications to other World War I veterans. He has a glass eye, facial scars from eating his own products, and is frequently seen making loopy faces. Russell and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki are keen to capture these details in close-up with long lenses to heighten the cartoonishness of the whole thing.
A lawyer named Harold Woodsman, portrayed by John David Washington, is his closest friend. The two of them developed an unbreakable relationship when Burt was the only soldier in World War I to accept the position of division commander for an all-black division. (Burt’s wife, the extremely funny blue-blood Andrea Riseborough, and her father, Casey Biggs of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, sent him there with the intention of having him killed.)
Both of the men were injured in the trenches, and while recovering in a French hospital, they encountered an American nurse named Valerie, who is portrayed by Margot Robbie and is bursting with joy and an uncanny artistic vision. Valerie shows our boys how to fully live life and is played by Margot Robbie. No one disputes that she has strong ties to foreign spies, particularly Mike Meyers and Michael Shannon. The three leave for Amsterdam, and Burt ends up being Harold and Valerie’s beloved third wheel—a relationship that would never have been possible outside the bubble of bohemian interwar Western Europe. The feeling of “Amsterdam” is one that is warmly recalled.
All of the scenes in the Dutch capital include pleasant lighting, expansive windows, and artwork. Unfortunately, if the film’s title made you expect to see Margot Robbie wandering amid windmills or along canals, you’ll have to take your Hollandophile ass somewhere else. In addition, we only see these instances in flashback, just before the 1930s, when poverty is engulfing America and a new threat is approaching in Europe, turn bad.
When a young woman (Taylor Swift!) who is certain that her father, an important Army man who treated the Black troops with dignity during the war, did not die naturally, visits Harold and Burt, the situation becomes heated once more. We start to believe her just as she is killed, and in a somewhat unexpected way. Harold and Burt are accused of the murder, which causes them to start looking for witnesses in high society.
The situation becomes more complicated as the two travel to a lavish suburban house and run with other oddballs like Rami Malek and Anya Taylor-Joy, who appear to be competing to see who can make the wackiest googly eyes for the camera. Malek triumphs! As they work to clear their reputations (and identify the murderers), Valerie reappears, and they learn about a plot that is partially based on historical fact. (Knowledge of the Humphrey Bogart classic All Through the Night will give you a hint as to how things will end.)
Amsterdam is not a great movie by any shakes, although it looks terrific and all of the performances, including turns from Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Ed Begley Jr., and Timothy Olyphant, are energetic, entertaining, and enjoyable. (Zoe Saldaa is a snooze; she didn’t get the memo about this movie’s tone.)
The issue is that the film tries a little bit too hard to be profound with its vast conspiracy theory and overt motif of history repeating itself. Yes, this is a significant topic (one doesn’t need to subscribe to many news sources to understand why there is legitimate cause for concern about the rise of Fascism), but it might be challenging to transition from exaggerated camera angles to political dread. Nobody can be David O. Russell or Joel and Ethan Coen, whose work continues to live in their shadow. Amsterdam is thought of with affection as a fleeting Eden on Earth. As the movie year progresses, few people are likely to recall Amsterdam at all.
