AMSTERDAM
***
Director: David O. Russell
Screenplay: David O. Russell
Principal cast:
Christian Bale
Margot Robbie
John David Washington
Andrea Riseborough
Rami Malek
Anya Taylor-Joy
Country: USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 134 mins.
Australian release date: 6 October 2022.
Amsterdam, directed, co-produced (star Christian Bale is also listed as a co-producer) and written by David O. Russell (Joy/American Hustle/The Fighter), is based on The Business Plot, a little-known political conspiracy that took place in the USA in 1933. It was a plan contrived by a cabal of businessmen to overthrow the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and replace him with a right-wing dictator. Russell has written a screenplay that involves a trio of close friends, veterans of World War I, getting inadvertently embroiled in the scheme and having to go on the run to clear their names, and he obviously had a lot of fun writing it. In fact, perhaps he had too much fun, because the link between the fictional friends and the real political plot gets muddied and, ultimately, the change in tone between the first and second halves doesn’t gel. The former is comedic, with a madcap whodunnit (actually, whydunit is more apt) vibe, while the latter tends more towards straight political drama.
The three comrades met in France in 1918, when the two men Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) and Harold Woodsman (John David Washington) were in hospital, badly injured, and being tended to by nurse Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie). They made a pact to look out for each other when the war ended and lived in Amsterdam after they were demobbed, sharing an apartment together. There, Harold and Valerie fell in love before Burt returned to New York to reconnect with his estranged wife, Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough), thus breaking up the group. Cut to NYC 12 years later, and Burt is an unorthodox doctor specialising in the facial reconstruction of war-wounded veterans and experimenting with pain relief, while Harold is a Columbia Law School-trained attorney dedicated to helping society’s underdogs. They’ve remained friends and are the kinds of guys you want on your side if you’re in a jam, so when Elizabeth Meekins (pop star Taylor Swift), the daughter of a recently deceased senator, calls on them to perform an autopsy on her father, the men are ready to help. Soon, however, they find they’re on the wrong side of both the law and a shadowy clique called the ‘Committee of the Five’. As they are desperately trying to figure out what’s really going on, their investigations bring them into contact once again with Valerie, their long-lost pal from Amsterdam, and, as she quickly figures out, “This is all turning out to be a lot larger than any of us.”
At its heart, Amsterdam is a film about mateship. “Friendship and love are the bedrock of the movie and to me the most important thing is the friendship between these characters,” Russell explains. “Those are good friends to have; friends who have seen the best of you, so they can help you remember and get back to the best of you.” The director is obviously a man who values relationships – he often works with the same actors and crew across multiple productions and this film is no exception. Bale and he have previously collaborated on American Hustle and The Fighter, for which the actor won an Academy Award, and Robert De Niro has appeared in Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and Joy (in Amsterdam, De Niro plays a character inspired by Smedley Butler, a real-life Major General in the US Marines who blew the whistle on the schemers involved in The Business Plot; in fact, the speech that De Niro gives in the film is taken verbatim from Butler’s actual notes). Others who have worked with the director before include the Oscar-winning Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, editor Jay Cassidy and production designer Judy Becker.
The large all-star cast are terrific, not just the top-billed leads (all three are excellent) but also the multitude of smaller roles and bit parts - so many familiar faces crop up, it’s hard to keep track. In addition to the aforementioned actors, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant and Zoe Saldaña all make appearances in greater or lesser parts. It’s not just friendship that’s under the microscope in the movie, either; other themes raised deal with racism and Fascism so, in that regard, it’s timely. However, Russell has ultimately tried to include too much in his script and spent too long doing it. Despite its wit and style, Amsterdam is like a dinner guest who won’t take the hint that it’s time to go home.
Screenplay: David O. Russell
Principal cast:
Christian Bale
Margot Robbie
John David Washington
Andrea Riseborough
Rami Malek
Anya Taylor-Joy
Country: USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 134 mins.
Australian release date: 6 October 2022.
Amsterdam, directed, co-produced (star Christian Bale is also listed as a co-producer) and written by David O. Russell (Joy/American Hustle/The Fighter), is based on The Business Plot, a little-known political conspiracy that took place in the USA in 1933. It was a plan contrived by a cabal of businessmen to overthrow the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and replace him with a right-wing dictator. Russell has written a screenplay that involves a trio of close friends, veterans of World War I, getting inadvertently embroiled in the scheme and having to go on the run to clear their names, and he obviously had a lot of fun writing it. In fact, perhaps he had too much fun, because the link between the fictional friends and the real political plot gets muddied and, ultimately, the change in tone between the first and second halves doesn’t gel. The former is comedic, with a madcap whodunnit (actually, whydunit is more apt) vibe, while the latter tends more towards straight political drama.
The three comrades met in France in 1918, when the two men Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) and Harold Woodsman (John David Washington) were in hospital, badly injured, and being tended to by nurse Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie). They made a pact to look out for each other when the war ended and lived in Amsterdam after they were demobbed, sharing an apartment together. There, Harold and Valerie fell in love before Burt returned to New York to reconnect with his estranged wife, Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough), thus breaking up the group. Cut to NYC 12 years later, and Burt is an unorthodox doctor specialising in the facial reconstruction of war-wounded veterans and experimenting with pain relief, while Harold is a Columbia Law School-trained attorney dedicated to helping society’s underdogs. They’ve remained friends and are the kinds of guys you want on your side if you’re in a jam, so when Elizabeth Meekins (pop star Taylor Swift), the daughter of a recently deceased senator, calls on them to perform an autopsy on her father, the men are ready to help. Soon, however, they find they’re on the wrong side of both the law and a shadowy clique called the ‘Committee of the Five’. As they are desperately trying to figure out what’s really going on, their investigations bring them into contact once again with Valerie, their long-lost pal from Amsterdam, and, as she quickly figures out, “This is all turning out to be a lot larger than any of us.”
At its heart, Amsterdam is a film about mateship. “Friendship and love are the bedrock of the movie and to me the most important thing is the friendship between these characters,” Russell explains. “Those are good friends to have; friends who have seen the best of you, so they can help you remember and get back to the best of you.” The director is obviously a man who values relationships – he often works with the same actors and crew across multiple productions and this film is no exception. Bale and he have previously collaborated on American Hustle and The Fighter, for which the actor won an Academy Award, and Robert De Niro has appeared in Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and Joy (in Amsterdam, De Niro plays a character inspired by Smedley Butler, a real-life Major General in the US Marines who blew the whistle on the schemers involved in The Business Plot; in fact, the speech that De Niro gives in the film is taken verbatim from Butler’s actual notes). Others who have worked with the director before include the Oscar-winning Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, editor Jay Cassidy and production designer Judy Becker.
The large all-star cast are terrific, not just the top-billed leads (all three are excellent) but also the multitude of smaller roles and bit parts - so many familiar faces crop up, it’s hard to keep track. In addition to the aforementioned actors, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant and Zoe Saldaña all make appearances in greater or lesser parts. It’s not just friendship that’s under the microscope in the movie, either; other themes raised deal with racism and Fascism so, in that regard, it’s timely. However, Russell has ultimately tried to include too much in his script and spent too long doing it. Despite its wit and style, Amsterdam is like a dinner guest who won’t take the hint that it’s time to go home.