Based on a real-life alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government and install a dictator, David O. Russell’s Amsterdam follows three friends as they become entangled in a conspiracy in 1930s New York. When a young woman comes to an experimental doctor for help, it will cause more problems than any of them could have imagined.
★★✰✰✰
It is in the first ten minutes of the off-beat mystery that Amsterdam reveals its only trick to the audience. When Elizabeth Meekins (Taylor Swift) walks into frame, Amsterdam shows itself to be a film mainly focused on its cast rather than its story or characters. It wants its audience to be thrilled at seeing her on screen, practically pausing for a moment when she arrives for the audience to have time to take it in. However, this becomes Amsterdam’s biggest mistake. Casting so many famous people in one film is a distraction, and it is not worth the novelty if it takes an audience out of the story.
Amsterdam’s story has a lot of potential. Its governmental conspiracy is an interesting tale about something not many people know about. When two old ex-veteran friends, Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) and Harold Woodsman (John David Washington), witness a murder, they soon become involved in a mystery that threatens a lot more than they know.
It seems odd then, given what is at stake in Amsterdam, that one of the most stacked casts in recent mainstream memory do not seem to want to be there. Amsterdam is an off-beat film, but most of the actors deliver their lines with a seriousness that feels out of place. Washington is the worst offender, as he keeps his face straight for the majority of the film and seems bored throughout. The same could be said for Margot Robbie, who is usually a reliably charming presence but in Amsterdam fails to connect. Her character, Valerie Voze, is meant to be mysterious, but she lacks the energy to compel the audience to uncover her past. Bale does the best job out of the leading trio, infusing his lines with an enjoyable trepidation that works for the depths he finds himself in. His mannerisms also add to his character, his slightly hunched back and off-kilter walk helping to establish him as a character who has existed before the events of the film.
Russell treats events with a lack of urgency throughout. This is felt most keenly in his dialogue, that says a lot without meaning much at all. It’s suitably witty when it wants to be, but often repeats exposition instead of taking enough time for its characters. Amsterdam spends a lot of time laying out what is going on at any given moment, when it should be doing more to connect the audience to its intriguing central trio of friends. The off-beat tone works best when the characters talk about something other than the mystery that is unfolding around them—Russell has a rich aesthetic to tap into, and the dialogue does not do enough to complement it.
When this aesthetic is prioritised, however, it does elevate Amsterdam visually. When Amsterdam taps into the period through its art design, it places the film in a suitably vibrant setting. Particularly notable are the interesting art pieces made by Robbie’s character. Russell spends a fair amount of time on these pieces, and they do a good job of providing Robbie’s character with another dimension and enrich the film’s visual language with bright colours. Amsterdam looks great, and when Russell takes his camera from the actors and lets his audience get a look at his recreation of 1930s New York, it provides the film with some of its best moments.
That being said, when he focuses his camera on his leading trio, Russell does mostly find success. Together, these three establish an admirable chemistry without much to work with. Amsterdam dedicates important time to their friendship. Whilst this does blunt the pacing it was worth it, because Bale, Robbie, and Washington together are the heart of the film. They do well to establish a hierarchy, with Bale seeming the more senior figure in the dynamic. Washington and Robbie’s romantic chemistry could have been better explored, but the two actors do just about enough to endear you to their connection. Amsterdam is about its characters more than its story in most cases, and the central trio are a clear example of this.
The Verdict
Amsterdam should be a lesson that a large, well-known cast is not always going to translate into success. Amsterdam gets too caught up in its plot to allow its characters room to breathe. When the central trio of Bale, Robbie, and Washington are alone in a room it feels like they have been friends for years. However, Russell forces them out of that room all too often in favour of a slow-moving plot that could have been replaced by a more retrospective narrative, with the three old friends talking about their life together, when they lived in Amsterdam all those years ago.
Words by James Evenden
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