Amsterdam really goes for a big magic trick. The appeal is certainly there: a juicy historical period piece with a whole cast of kooky costumes and characters with a very clear message to deliver. But that simple pitch attempts to hide a litany of pitfalls hidden within Amsterdam’s tale, and culturally with its turbulent curator David O. Russell. Too many pitfalls in fact, as the movie really struggles to hide the problems inherent in bringing Amsterdam to movie audiences everywhere.
The movie hilariously does not open in Amsterdam. Instead, we spend most of our days in 1933 New York City. Glass eyed war veteran Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) lives his days in blissful poverty, content to take care of vets like himself who never got the help they needed after the Great War of 1918. One of Burt’s friends and fellow vets, lawyer Harold Woodsman (John David Washington), asks for Burt’s help to do an autopsy on their former commander Senator Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.), whom his family believe did not die of natural causes. This simple request takes us down a study of Bill and Harold’s time during the great war, meeting a French nurse Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), a former General/vets’ rights activist Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro), and yes, Amsterdam.
Seems like a juicy setup right? Murder mystery meets war tale. Without revealing too much, David O. Russell’s movie also has a real life endpoint it’s leading its characters to. But that endpoint basically slowly derails the entire film, as evidenced by the confused reactions in the theater I was seeing. There are two jarringly different stories going on at once: one of those is a daffy comedy revolving around Bale, Robbie, and Washington and the shenanigans they get themselves into. Large chunks of that film can be quite funny due to the hilarious specific characterizations Russell gives his trio and supporting cast. But that silliness is interwoven into a larger, much more sinister plot with real world ramifications that kills people. Like it’s director, Amsterdam is a tale of two contradictions forced to coexist with one another, and like in real life, Russell can’t find a way to make these contradictions co-exist peacefully, meaning the audience is watching something funny happen when something deadly serious is going on, or scared into paying attention to a silly scene, resulting in either confused laughter or uncomfortable shushing because no one knows what movie they’re supposed to be watching, scene to scene.
The saving grace of the movie is the incredible cast. In service of two films at once, the talented actors pick and choose which movie they are going to base their character in: crime thriller or screwball comedy. Christian Bale is the only actor who successfully navigates both tones, usually because he has to act in scenes with two actors choosing to be in the two different movies. In Amsterdam he’s loving life with the mostly serious John David Washington and the aloof weirdo Margot Robbie. When seeking for some help solving the murder Burt Berendsen chats seriously with Rami Malek while Anya Taylor-Joy comes in hot with all sorts of strange character choices (one of my favorite performances in the movie). Bale then might be interrogated by the serious Matthias Schoenaerts and the internalized guilty Alessandro Nivola (my other favorite performance), or investigating crimes with important government officials Michael Shannon (doing furtive glances) and Mike Myers (playing a rejected Austin Powers character). When Burt starts choosing who he wants to love, it’s either the sweet and serious Zoe Saldana or the pompously rich Andrea Riseborough. Hell even when Robert De Niro is pontificating about the seriousness of caring for veterans, Beth Grant shows up to drag him down a peg with a great zinger. The cast makes Amsterdam at least kinda watchable, with Bale holding the movie together with some sort of charisma superpowers and a glass eye.
Amsterdam might be the last David O. Russell movie we see in a while because of his vile behavior off camera. All around that makes the movie feel like a bummer. Not only because we’re wasting all these great actors on something this ill-formed, but also because Russell couldn’t pull one last great movie out of his ass before he deservedly goes into Hollywood jail. At least we can take some pieces here and jsomeone less cruel can create a detective TV show with Shoenaerts and Nivola together. That would be silly and fun as hell.