Mark Reviews Movies: AMSTERDAM

Amsterdam, 20th Century Studios

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 6, 2022

Writer/director David O. Russell assembles a considerable and noteworthy cast for Amsterdam (despite the ways he apparently has treated actors, usually women, in the past, although that's only worth a brief mention in a review for your further research). The main trio of stars consists of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington, for example, but the cast is deep enough for people like Chris Rock, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, and Zoe Saldaña to have supporting roles. Even recording star and occasional actor Taylor Swift appears, only to violently disappear as soon as her role as a double-dose of inciting incident is complete.

Just like Swift's character, the rest of the cast seems to be disposable in the filmmaker's mind. Here's a movie filled with undeniable talent, and everyone is in service of a plot that starts and stops, going about a formulaic and step-by-step mystery. By the time the screenplay arrives at a real-life historical event of political importance and modern-day relevancy, whatever life the actors try to bring to this material has been drained.

There is an initial rush of promise as the story, primarily set in New York City circa 1933, begins with some focus on the characters. Bale plays Burt Berendsen, a doctor and veteran of the Great War, who was wounded in combat, leaving him with plenty of scars, one glass eye, and dedication to caring for the physical and emotional well-being of his fellow former soldiers (There's something a bit off-putting in the way Burt's injuries are occasionally handled as "quirks," although it is more personality than any other character here is afforded). A lot of his treatments are experimental, but he has nothing to lose, since his wife Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough) and her well-to-do family already have more or less disowned him for his choice of clients.

He and his best friend Harold Woodman (Washington), who served in the same unit as Burt and is now a lawyer, are hired by one Liz Meekins (Swift), the daughter of the general who created the unit and died on his way home from a trip to Europe. The daughter suspects foul play, and after an impromptu autopsy suggests she might be correct, Liz is pushed in front of a moving truck by a mysterious man (played by Timothy Olyphant). Burt and Harold are present and immediately suspected of the killing, so they now have to prove their innocence, while also trying to determine who wanted the general and his curious daughter dead.

From that point on, the rest of this narrative is all plot, with Burt and Harold searching for clues, questioning people who knew the daughter or the general, and being pointed in the direction of other people who might be able to help. Before moving from place to place for characters to spout exposition, the screenplay does provide a lengthy flashback to the war, showing how Burt and Harold met, how their injuries brought them to a hospital and the care of American nurse Valerie (Robbie), and how that chance meeting led to a deep friendship and a stay in the title city after the hostilities have ended.

While it stops the flow of mystery right at its beginning, the flashback does give some sense of these characters, which is all Russell apparently can stand to afford. Harold and Valerie, also an artist, have a quick and undeveloped romance, as Burt admires them and eventually longs to return home.

Catching back up to the present, the remainder of the mystery has the duo reuniting with Valerie, who's sister to the wealthy Tom (Rami Malek) and sister-in-law to the controlling Libby (Anya Taylor-Joy). The rich couple points the three amateur sleuths toward General Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro), who admired the other general and might help in publicly revealing his murderers. While the movie's period details look authentic, we're left noticing them quite a bit, since Russell has his actors standing or sitting around in static shots as they recite or listen to copious amounts of exposition about who these characters are, what the next step in the investigation should be, and why some secret cabal of powerful men could be a threat to the foundation of the country.

That last bit probably sounds vital, but while Russell's screenplay does gradually explain that clandestine plot and its connection to nefarious forces in other places, the filmmaker presents it with the same drowsy, rote energy of everything building up to it. Amsterdam says and reveals a lot of plotting, but ultimately, it's a movie with nothing of note to say and possessing barely the energy to say even that little.

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