Also popping up: celebrated army buddy General Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro, The War with Grandpa), as well as intelligence officers Paul Canterbury (Mike Myers, The Pentaverate) and Henry Norcross (Michael Shannon, Bullet Train). Old war buddy Milton King (Chris Rock, Spiral: From the Book of Saw) warns Burt and Harold about helping Liz from the start, but autopsy nurse Irma St Clair (Zoe Saldana, The Adam Project) - who Burt is visibly fond of - dutifully assists. Valerie Voze (Robbie) sweeps back in just as pandemonium kicks in, under her brother Tom (Rami Malek, No Time to Die) and his wife Libby's (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Northman) watch. The pacing doesn't help, flitting between zipping and dragging - and usually busting out the wrong one for each scene.Īmong all of the above, there's also no shortage of characters that lengthy list of well-known names has to get up to something, and that jam-packed story has to get as many cogs whirring as possible. One of Amsterdam's worst traits is its overloaded and convoluted feel, seeing that there's the IRL past to explore, a message about history repeating itself to deliver along with it, and enough mayhem to fuel several romps to spill out around it. There's a shagginess to both the tale and the telling, because busy and rambling is the vibe, especially with so much stuffed into the plot. Clearing their names and figuring out what's going on are intertwined, of course, and also just the start of a story that isn't short on developments and twists (plus early flashes back to 1918 to set up the core trio, their bond, their heady bliss and a pact that they'll keep looking out for each other).
Two police detectives ( The Old Guard's Matthias Schoenaerts and The Many Saints of Newark's Alessandro Nivola), both veterans themselves, come a-snooping - and Burt and Harold now have two tasks. The bereaved daughter suspects foul play and Burt and Harold find it, but with fingers pointing their way when there's suddenly another body. That's how he ends up lending a hand (well, a scalpel) to the well-to-do Liz Meekins (Taylor Swift, Cats) after the unexpected death of her father and their old Army general (Ed Begley Jr, Better Call Saul). As he did in the war, however, Burt aids who he can where he can, including with fellow ex-soldier Harold Woodman (Washington). He once had a Park Avenue practice, but his military enlistment and his fall from the well-heeled set afterwards all stems from his snobbish wife Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain) and her social-climbing (and prejudiced) parents. A doctor, a lawyer and a nurse - at least at some point in the narrative - they revel in love and art during their uninhabited stay, then get caught in chaos 15 years later.Īmsterdam begins in the later period, with Burt Berendsen (Bale) tending to veterans - helping those with war injuries and lingering pain, as he himself has - without a medical license. They play pals forged in friendship during World War I, then thanks to a stint in the titular Dutch city. The lively movie's cast is its strongest asset, though, including the convincing camaraderie between Bale, John David Washington ( Malcolm & Marie) and Margot Robbie ( The Suicide Squad). The former did help guide the latter to an Oscar for The Fighter, then a nomination for American Hustle - but while Bale is welcomely and entertainingly loose and freewheeling, and given ample opportunity to show his comic chops in his expressive face and physicality alone, Amsterdam is unlikely to complete the trifecta of Academy Awards recognition. The American Hustle of it all springs from the "a lot of this actually happened" plot, this time drawing upon a political conspiracy called the White House/Wall Street Putsch, and again unfurling a wild true tale.Ī Russell returnee sits at the centre, too: Christian Bale ( Thor: Love and Thunder) in his third film for the writer/director. Amsterdam is a murder-mystery, too, set largely in the 1930s against a backdrop of increasing fascism, and filled with more famous faces than most movies can dream of. Swap pastels for earthier hues, still with a love of detail, and there's the unmistakably Anderson-esque look of the film. Why can't David O Russell be among them? Take the first filmmaker's The Grand Budapest Hotel, mix in the second's American Hustle and that's as good a way as any to start describing Amsterdam, Russell's return to the big screen after a seven-year gap following 2015's Joy - and a starry period comedy, crime caper and history lesson all in one. There's only one Wes Anderson, but there's a litany of wannabes.
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