At first glance, the 1930s screwball mystery film “Amsterdam,” which contains an array of award-winning stars, seems like an exceptional film. But no matter how recognizable the faces are, it doesn’t cover up the lack of a comprehensible narrative or any substance that is made by a controversial director who is trying to recuse himself of his wrongdoings.
The film follows the trio of a doctor (Christian Bale), a nurse (Margot Robbie) and a lawyer (John David Washington) trying to sort through a political conspiracy that also involves them being accused of killing a woman. It switches between the 1910s where the trio originally meet in Amsterdam and 1930s New York where they reunite to figure out an egregious conspiracy.
The way the screenplay is played out drastically pulls down the film entirely as it gathers no tension and barely holds a climactic ending. It focuses on too many boring side stories, while also trying to be a “whodunnit” and trying to uplift its political messages as well.
“Amsterdam” director David O. Russell is known for directing critically acclaimed films like “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle.” He is also known for having several accusations of on-set altercations as well as sexual assault allegations, which has led to people boycotting his work. Oddly, his new film transparently represents how he believes to be “falsely accused” of his allegations, which makes the film even more ridiculous. The film’s plot continuously reminds you of his behavior by doing this, as the main characters are wrongly accused of a crime, making the viewers detach any admirable feelings toward this narrative.
A long list of stars makes up the cast apart from the main three, actors including Chris Rock, Robert De Niro, Zoe Saldana, Rami Malek and Anya Taylor-Joy. The cast is sustainably diverse but doesn’t offer enough redemption for the film. The Taylor-Joy and Malek duo, as hopeful as they seem, manage to get extremely annoying after a while. All the while, Taylor Swift’s short-lived appearance was defective bait for Swifties to garner them into theaters.
The myriad of characters is sustainably flat, with little to no characteristics, especially because there are too many things to focus on. Not even these award-winning performers could give performances that would make anything worth watching. Collectively, the actors seem as though they aren’t trying to outshine each other but level each other out, thus making each performance as bland as possible.
But even though the cast is packed full of award winners and highly regarded artists, it doesn’t keep the film afloat. “Don’t Look Up,” another film with a star-studded cast, is another example of a film losing its form with too many popular faces placed in it. It goes to show that while it may be interesting to see a cast full of stars in a film, it isn’t enough to direct attention away from a failing narrative. Especially because both have a very obvious political message that the filmmakers are wanting to convey to audiences, it distracts them from aspects that should be more important.
The film is desperately trying to be “Knives Out,” by trying to be witty and mysterious at times but it doesn’t have the same charisma or even enough substance to be compared fully. The only thing it can be compared to is a high school play full of amateurs, over-acting their hearts out to a play that makes absolutely no sense.
Out of all the discrepancies, the cinematography is one of the only praisable aspects of the entire film. Oscar Award-winning cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki brings the same charm as he usually does in films like “Birdman” and “Children of Men.”
Joke after joke, nothing hits like it wants to. One can only watch Bale’s glass eye pop out again and again and feel tired of its redundancy. The plot gets lost within these underdeveloped jokes, making the film even more nonsensical. Stringing in so many “quirky” characters to be involved in this so-called murder mystery continues to make it even harder to follow.
The real joke is on this film, especially since it didn’t reach as wide of an audience as it wanted to with a poor box office opening. When a director tries to redeem themselves in a screwball mystery with too much star power, it’s going to get convoluted really easily. The screenplay feels as though it was a rough draft that should have definitely been revised. Though the film was considered to be Oscar-bait and the cast has accumulated numerous awards amongst them, the only awards this film will be getting is several Razzies.
