AmsterdamAlthough it could be said that there were many things in this film, the truth is that they are not all dull. The new film from writer-director David O. Russell boasts one of the most impressive ensemble casts of the year and is photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki, one of Hollywood’s premier cinematographers. The film’s quirky premise, and even more eccentric cast of characters, open up the doors to new possibilities. AmsterdamO. Russell seems to be uniquely equipped to solve the screwball murder mystery.
Instead, AmsterdamThis is a disaster to the very highest order. It’s a film made up of so many disparate, incongruent parts that it becomes clear very early on in its 134-minute runtime that no one involved — O. Russell most of all — really knew what it is they were making. The film is a disaster of epic proportions. It’s a comedy conspiracy thriller written in haphazard humor but paced like a slow-moving detective drama. It is a film that seems at odds with every other element, which results in a film that is often funny but always irritating.
Its exposition-laden opening narration establishes that AmsterdamChristian Bale follows Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), who is a veteran doctor who has learned to live each day with a broken back and a glass-eyed eye. Burt, who was forever changed by his experiences in World War I, has decided to take responsibility for caring for all the wounded veterans left behind by the elites from the early 1930s New York City. Unfortunately for him, it’s this philanthropic instinct that leads Burt into agreeing to conduct a covert autopsy on the body of his former commanding officer.
When Burt discovers that the man in question was, indeed, poisoned, he is forced to team back up with two of his WWI companions, a lawyer named Harold Woodsman (John David Washington) and Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), the former combat nurse who saved Burt and Harold’s lives when they were injured in the war. Before long, Burt, Harold, and Valerie all find themselves caught up in a conspiracy involving several powerful businessmen, a celebrated American general (played by Robert De Niro), and the authoritarian political wave that’s simultaneously sweeping through Europe.
If that all sounds a bit messy and convoluted, that’s because it is. However, Amsterdam’s premise is loosely based on an obscure American political conspiracy known as The Business PlotThe film fails to adapt its real-life story in a coherent way for the big screen. O. Russell’s attempts to stress the contemporary relevance of the Business Plot itself never come across as anything more than ham-fisted and hackneyed, either, and that’s especially true by the time that Amsterdam tosses out a lazy and obvious visual joke in its third act about the secretly fascistic design of one character’s hedges.
Amsterdam also saddles most of its cast members with some of the most inauthentic and cloying dialogue you’ll likely hear this year. Zoe Saldaña, for instance, is utterly wasted in a thankless role that would rather her espouse empty platitudes about the nature of love than contribute anything of real substance to Amsterdam’s story. O. Russell’s script, meanwhile, buries Robbie, Washington, and Bale’s natural charisma beneath superfluous layers of eccentricities that add little to their characters, and the love story that binds Harold, Burt, and Valerie together is so thinly sketched and saccharine that it ultimately rings false.
There are a few performers who do manage to make the most out of O. Russell’s screwball swings — namely, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Alessandro Nivola, and Andrea Riseborough. Anya Taylor-Joy also makes an admirable attempt at bringing her obnoxiously narcissistic character to life in as satirical a way as possible, but the heightened aspects of her performance are drowned out by both O. Russell’s frequently odd editing choices and the sleepy performance that Rami Malek gives as her on-screen partner, Tom.
For his part, Lubezki’s cinematography imbues AmsterdamWith a warmth that is reminiscent of Malick-esque visuals, and without the need for a script. Lubezki’s meditative, Malick-esque visual style does often seem to be at odds with O. Russell’s frenetic sense of humor, though, which only makes the disconnect between the way AmsterdamIt is well written, and it is even more evident in the way it was made. While J.R. Hawbaker and Albert Wolsky’s costumes only further reinforce Amsterdam’s needlessly quirky style as well, the duo do manage to clothe the film’s stars in a number of memorable outfits. Robbie rocked a top-hat-centric look that this writer particularly liked. Amsterdam‘s second act.)
The film’s visual achievements are not enough to rescue Amsterdam. The film’s creative and directional failure is evident from its awkward opening scenes to its hollow, emotionally charged final frames. The film is a 135-minute wannabe prestige production that has replaced a 90-minute messy and, at best, exuberantly exuberant conspiracy comedy. Although every line of dialogue sounds fast, it was actually read at half speed. This leaves many of the lines sounding stilted. Amsterdam’s scenes with the kind of dead pauses that only grind its momentum to an even greater halt.
These are just a few of the many possibilities. Joy?, and American HustleIt is safe to assume that O. Russell inherited all the goodwill he had. The Fighter Silver Linings Playbookthe water has since evaporated. Similar to the story’s central character, the poisoned veteran. AmsterdamIs dead upon arrival.
AmsterdamThis film is currently in theatres
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