Coens Lite
David O Russell’s latest is entertaining enough, but not as deep and meaningful as he thinks it is.
Amsterdam
Director: David O Russell • Writer: David O Russell
Starring: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Mike Myers, Andrea Riseborough, Robert De Niro
USA • 2hr 14mins
Opens Hong Kong October 6 • II
Grade: B-
David O Russell bites off all of whatever it is you chew as a director in Amsterdam, and as the saying goes, it’s more than he can comfortably handle. The shambling, ambitious and occasionally unfocused mish-mash of absurd comedy, sentimental romance, fascist warning bell and clunky allegory is, like most Russell films: brilliantly scathing in its insightful wit one moment and clumsily self-indulgent the next, barely stopping in between to take a breath. His breakout Spanking the Monkey (1994) and Three Kings (1999) hold up as genuinely black and thoughtful comedies, but his later films spend so much energy on either trying to be Coen-esque (American Hustle) or simply vehicles for Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, Joy) they go off a cliff and barely, barely, claw their way back.
Such is the case with Amsterdam, which unfolds like a traditional three-act story stretched out into four. Despite an endearingly weird and nuanced performance by Russell regular Christian Bale (The Fighter) and some honest-to-god acting from Robert De Niro as a fiery general (loosely based on a real person) committed to exposing bad actors inside the American government, the film slinks from moment to moment, intermittently demanding attention. The overstuffed plot also puts race relations, veteran care and the concentration of power and wealth on its laundry list of contemporary social issues to take aim at, yet somewhere near the end of Act 2 Russell goes off that cliff. That he manages to right the ship just before the end is a testament to his visual flair and some ace work by production designer Judy Becker. Bottom line: Amsterdam is the chatty guy at the party who thinks he’s deep and won’t shut up, but you keep listening to him because, dammit, some of his yarns are truly entertaining.
Where the hell do you start with this? The action begins in 1933, almost immediately flashing back to late in the First World War, when doctor Burt Berendsen (Bale) finds himself leading an all-Black platoon that no other officer wants to be seen with and forging a lifelong friendship with GI lawyer Harold Woodsman (John David Washington, Tenet) by simply showing him and his squad some basic respect. This pleases the commander on site, eventual senator Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr). This is important. Anyway, they get blown to shit by shells and are tended to by agitating nurse Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie in the Lawrence role), who falls hard for Harold (because… John David Washington). The trio becomes thick as thieves and moves to interwar bohemian Amsterdam to live in sun-dappled salons in ways that can only happen in the movies.
But then Meekins, winds up dead, the victim of a conspiracy that Berendsen, Woodsman and Voze are tasked with busting wide open by British spook Paul Canterbury (Mike Myers) and his CIA counterpart Henry Norcross (Michael Shannon, not being intense and creepy).
Finally doing his job
The hero walk
The problems with Amsterdam are many: It’s overly-plotted with an aimless act wedged between the second and third that hurts the pacing, all the long-lensed close-ups in the world can’t tip affected style into meaningful imagery, it’s preachy and – say it with me now – it’s too long. Russell’s history of being called out as a dick in the press (he royally pissed of Lily Tomlin on I Heart Huckabees, he and George Clooney allegedly came to blows on Three Kings) has made him an easy target for critics and put a question mark over every slightly clangy scene he’s shot since. Unfair, but it happens.
However for all its flaws, there are just as many delights and laugh-out-loud moments, often involving Berendsen’s glass eye and the way the trio, led by Robbie’s low-key revolutionary Voze, suss out the plot and save the world. Bale (who makes some of the overworked dialogue positively sing) and De Niro are on top of their game in an absolutely stacked, game cast, which includes Chris Rock (underused), Anya Taylor-Joy, Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift (for some reason), Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Rami Malek (proving he has one speed) and Zoe Saldana (who appears to be in another movie, she’s so dour). There are a lot of big ideas in Amsterdam, probably enough to power four films, but by cramming them all into one, Russell’s turned in a charming romp rather than the post-modern comment on the cycles of history he thinks he has. Enjoyably watchable in the moment, once you step out of the cinema Amsterdam evaporates. History indeed. — DEK