For a movie meant to be a lively romp, writer/director David O. Russell's Amsterdam is remarkably laborious — an overlong, overstuffed windup that amounts to very little. Set in 1933, it takes its time bringing together the main players in a convoluted conspiracy loosely inspired by a real-life plot to enact a fascist coup in the United States. That doesn't come into focus until the movie is nearly over, though, and for most of the running time it's hard to tell what anyone is trying to accomplish or why.
As the movie begins, wounded World War I veteran Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) is running a New York City practice dedicated to treating both the phsyical and mental trauma of his fellow soldiers. He's drawn into the labyrinthine plot when his former commanding officer, Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.), turns up dead under suspicious circumstances. Meekins' daughter Elizabeth (Taylor Swift) is convinced that her father was murdered, and she hires Burt's old Army buddy Harold Woodsman (John David Washington) to investigate.
Soon Elizabeth is dead, too, and Burt and Harold have been framed for her murder. In their efforts to clear their names, they reach out to wealthy scion Tom Voze (Rami Malek) and his wife, Libby (Anya Taylor-Joy), and to renowned retired Gen. Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro). Eventually, they reunite with Tom's sister Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), a former nurse who treated both of them after the war and was in love with Harold.
The movie stops cold for a lengthy flashback to 1918, when Burt, Harold and Valerie first met, moving from an Army hospital to an apartment in Amsterdam, where they spent an idyllic post-war period together. Amsterdam becomes a sort of talisman for the three characters, holding on to a time in their lives when they were happy and free, unburdened by familial expectations, racial prejudices or economic hardship. But the supposed deep bond among the trio is never particularly convincing, and the romance between Valerie and Harold is listless and underdeveloped.
Russell can't seem to decide whether he's making a caper comedy or a political drama or a period romance or a war movie or something else entirely, so he lurches from one to the other, throwing as many famous faces as possible at the audience. The packed cast also includes everyone from Mike Myers and Chris Rock to Michael Shannon and Andrea Riseborough, most of whom don't make much of an impression. It doesn't help that Bale sucks up all the air in nearly every scene, giving one of his worst performances as the chatty, overbearing Burt. He puts on a broad New York Jewish accent and is constantly fidgeting or mumbling, making himself the center of attention in every scene, whether he warrants it or not.
Washington and Robbie are comparatively understated, and they each find small amounts of pathos in their vaguely defined characters. Russell can't make room for any genuine emotion, though, always falling back on snarky quips and exaggerated mugging rather than anything heartfelt. He also stages many of the scenes awkwardly, having actors deliver dialogue directly to the camera, making it difficult to tell where characters are in relation to each other.
Russell previously used a real-life conspiracy as the source material for an entertaining saga with colorful characters and sharp humor in 2013's American Hustle, but there are only occasional sparks of that cleverness in Amsterdam. By the end, Russell simply delivers nonstop exposition in dialogue and voiceover, seemingly desperate to explain the story's themes and importance to the audience. His characters talk and talk, but nothing they say matters. ♦
Amsterdam
