Welcome back! This week we begin to wind down our Margot Robbie filmography watch through, at least for a while. The reason being that after today there will only be two of Margot’s films, that have been released, for me to cover. But before I get too far ahead of myself, we turn our focus this week to….Amsterdam (2022).
Title: Amsterdam
Director: David O. Russell
Released: September 22, 2022 (Limited theatrical release – United States)
Runtime: 2 hours 14 minutes
Watched via: VOD rental
Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) is stationed in France in 1918 during World War I. While there, Burt becomes friends with a fellow soldier by the name of Harold Woodman (John David Washington). Both men suffer injuries while in battle and wind up in a Belgian hospital.
While there, Burt has his eye injury tended to by a nurse by the name of Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie). The three form a tight bond and agree to always keep in-touch and look out for one another.
Flash forward to 1933 and Burt now has an established practice providing artificial limbs to veterans while Harold is now a practicing lawyer. As for Valerie, well, they’ve sort of fallen out of touch with her over the past few years.
One day, Harold comes to Burt and asks him to perform an autopsy on the commander of their regiment. It isn’t Harold who wants Burt to perform the autopsy, rather the commander’s daughter, Liz (Taylor Swift). Liz has a sneaking suspicion that her father was poisoned and her suspicion would prove correct as Burt finds poison in the commander’s stomach.
However, when Burt and Harold meet with Liz to discuss the autopsy results, Liz is pushed into traffic and killed. The man who killed Liz manages to frame both Burt and Harold for her death.
In order to clear their names, Burt and Harold are going to need a lot of help.
Maybe even some help from an old friend.
Well, there’s 2 hours and 14 minutes that I wish I could have back.
Noted monster to have to work with, David O. Russell, manages to take an all-star cast and deliver an unnecessarily exhausting and unfocused mess of a film. The writing is clunky and includes way too many unnecessary characters and subplots.
With a cast that includes Bale, Robbie, Washington, as well as supporting roles from the likes of De Niro, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy and Andrea Riseborough, the performances wind up being a massive disappointment. Everyone I just listed is more than capable of turning in incredible performances that can make you overlook other aspects of a film that don’t work.
However, that is not the case here, not by a long shot. When it comes to the dialogue, every line is delivered in an emotionless and wooden way by nearly every single actor we wind up seeing. Making matters worse is that there is absolutely zero chemistry between Washington and Robbie. While granted, we don’t know what the environment on set was like, but it comes across like everyone is just going through the motions in hopes that the check clears the bank.
But I don’t like to just trash things I don’t like. Even in the worst of films, I can find something that kept me from shutting it off. With Amsterdam (2022), that would be the costumes. Well, the costumes and maybe a handful of scenes that are actually beautifully shot.
All in all though, Amsterdam (2022) is one that you should not rush to seek out. If you’ve yet to see it and feel the need to watch it, definitely wait for it to pop-up on a service you already subscribe to.
So, if you have seen Amsterdam (2022), what did you think of it?
Sound off in the comments below or hit me up over on Bluesky with your thoughts!
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to see everything else that I’ve been watching lately.