Amsterdam (2022)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Amsterdam (2022) – D. O. Russell

I was 2/3 of the way through Amsterdam before I realized that Christian Bale was channeling Peter Falk (that voice!) but the fact that his character (a doctor and WWI vet) also has a glass eye should have tipped me off.  “Why Falk?” remains a mystery although it sounds like the kind of challenge Bale or director David O. Russell might come up with for themselves. It is a very quirky film! We begin around 1930 with Burt Berendsen (Bale) and his African American lawyer friend Harold Woodman (John David Washington) called to perform an autopsy on their former WWI military commander General Bill Meekins who has died under suspicious circumstances. But when they attempt to report the results to his daughter, they soon find themselves charged with murder and on the run from the law.  At this point, the film flashes back to WWI and we get Burt and Harold’s backstory and we are introduced to Valerie (Margot Robbie), their Jules & Jim-styled partner/love interest/friend. She arranges for them to escape the Argonne to Amsterdam where they live a carefree life (free from the prejudices and judgment of America, including Burt’s wife and in-laws). They also run into two spies (Mike Myers and Michael Shannon) who know Valerie (and who feature later in the plot). Eventually, however, Burt feels the need to return to the US where he sets up a practice helping down-and-out veterans and Harold soon joins him there to offer legal support.  At this stage, we return to the “present” and follow the pair as they try to clear their names and figure out who killed Meekins. This takes the film into a more political direction, alluding to some true events that raise the spectre of American fascism in the 1930s/40s (and, of course, in the present too). Of course, Valerie returns to join in the action. The film itself is a star-studded well-staged period piece that rambles merrily along but never gains enough momentum to make its big finale pay off. That said, I enjoyed it (and can’t believe it is the first David O. Russell film in seven years).