Amsterdam is proof positive that there is no substitute for a quality script. The film has everything it needs to be successful: a disgustingly talented cast (Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Anya Taylor-Joy, Michael Shannon, Matthias Schoenaerts, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Taylor Swift, Timothy Olyphant, Zoe Saldana, Rami Malek, Robert DeNiro …) , an award-winning director (David O. Russell), an enticing plot (a double-murder mystery period piece with more killings to follow if it isn’t solved), all couched within a theme that couldn’t be more currently relevant than if it had stolen classified documents and refused to give them back.
And yet, hmmm, well it’s not like the film doesn’t work, but it sure won’t get much Best Picture support despite having all the credentials. And the problem is the script. For a potentially great film, Amsterdam is too long, too preachy, and too predictable. This is what happens when you sell your idea for a film before hammering down the details.
For all the talent, there are only three decent parts in Amsterdam and they belong to Bale, Robbie, and Washington, who play friends scarred by WWI and thriving as a trio in spite of it. Their salad days are reported via flashback as then two-eyed Dr. Burt Berendsen (Bale) gets sent to France in 1918 to help pull together an all black platoon. The loyalty he shows the platoon is rebounded in misery when he returns to New York after the war and finds his practice and his life hindered by the stigma of the company he keeps. Hence, he reflects upon a brief post-war hiatus when he, Harold Woodsman (Washington), and the nurse who mended both men, Valerie Voze (Robbie) all lived together in Amsterdam.
Fifteen years later, Woodsman is a lawyer, Dr. Berendsen has a struggling practice and a pill addiction, and nobody has seen Valerie in years. The film starts in 1933 with the reported death of Senator Bill Meekins (Ed Begley, Jr.), the respected leader of the outfit Berendsen and Woodsman shared in WWI. Meekins’ daughter Elizabeth (Swift) pushes for an investigation and then the investigation pushes her back … specifically under a moving car. And our multi-chromatic heroes are wrong-place-wrong-time … so not only are Berendsen and Woodsman in danger from the same outfit that beekinsed the Meekins; they’re now the main suspects in the murders.
Oh, and Dr. Berendsen’s wife and in-laws suck, which is why in the film Bale looks like Beaker 
and gets as much respect as Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.
Amsterdam is loosely based on historical accounts when a cabal of moneyed fascists attempted to mold the United States into Mussolini’s Italy or what-would-be Hitler’s Germany. You can see how poignant that is, right? Whether or not you believe MAGA is a fascist movement, these are matters that are relevant to all Americans exactly right now. Given all the good stuff about the film, Amsterdam should have been a Best Picture contender.
So what happened? The script. Amsterdam comes off as predictable and preachy. Robert DeNiro may as well be a stuffed chair for all he’s artificially positioned in the narrative. My guess is that the talent all wanted more lines; if you are recent Best Actor winner Rami Malek, wouldn’t you insist upon a meaty part? The film didn’t lack for recognizable names or talent, just parts that required more than five lines of dialogue. I’m guessing a fair amount of the cast requested beefier parts. But the story only has three decent characters. And the film itself gave away the game far too early which left it in an unenviable position of preaching out of viewer necessity to tie storylines together. Don’t preach out of a need for plot; that’s just common sense.
I certainly wanted to give a glowing review
For raising our current dilemma anew
Yet a classic saying
Has me braying:
“Too many actors spoil the coup”
Rated R, 134 Minutes
Director: David O. Russell
Writer: David O. Russell
Genre: Underwhelming
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People that don’t get to the movies much
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People with expectations
