Amsterdam: Movie Review

Cast: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert de Niro, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, Taylor Swift, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Andrea Riseborough, Zoe Saldana

Director: David O Russell

"A lot of this really happened."

A simple story made more complicated by all its various elements and stars, at its heart, Amsterdam is the New York-set tale of the friendship between Bale's Burt, a doctor working pro bono for veterans post the first Great war and Washington's Harold, an attorney.

Years after they became friends from serving, the doctor and the lawyer are asked to investigate the death of their former captain.

With his daughter (Swift) suspecting foul play, the two find themselves framed for murder, and on the run from their past....

There's an element of the chaotic in the American Hustle director's shaggy dog story that doesn't quite gel in ways that it should.

Portions of the film feel like a screwball caper comedy as Bale and Washington's characters try to clear their name - but a serious injection of the more truthful elements of the original story come into play, making the tone at times feel more uneven than instantly compelling.

At its heart, Amsterdam is a story about family and also protecting kindness, but the route to the somewhat saccharine ending is a circuitous one, even if it is stuffed with stars along the way. And yes, it has things to say about the world's current sorry state - even if the message is not a new one, or one presented in a clever way.

Past reflections on Robbie's free-spirited artist Valerie's affair with Harold in Amsterdam provide some emotional heft and contribute largely to the friendship between Burt, Harold and Valerie as they slum it in an extended gap year after the war.

Bale's crazed-hair and over pronunciation of words makes his former veteran a spiky and unpredictable presence, but his baleful approach to some of the more emotive elements of the film prove to be tremendously effective when it counts.

Equally, Washington and Robbie prove to be an earnest pair of star-crossed lovers, whose paths cross and unravel in unexpected ways.

But it's Russell's helming of Amsterdam's spiralling story that proves to be polarising. 

As the real events of the 1930s plot and conspiracy begin to crash dramatically into the story, the film's desire to be taken more seriously proves to be a difficult mission to undertake, given how almost comedic proceedings have become.

While Rock's character gets to vent against white man ideals (in something that feels like an extension of his offscreen persona and comedy), other side characters don't fare as well. Taylor-Joy and Malek feel like cyphers rather than fully-fleshed out characters, and Riseborough and Saldana's contributions feel like they could have done with more screentime.

It's some of the problem of Amsterdam - the stuffing is simultaneously too much for its 130 minutes, yet not quite sufficient enough to be nourishing.

Perhaps a sharper focus and a less sappy ending could have helped this film immensely, but while it has its flaws, Amsterdam also has its own singular and vicarious pleasures worth indulging in.