After the huge success of Joy, director David O. Russell announced an unnamed movie in development five years later, in 2020, with a huge budget of USD 80 million and a star-studded cast.
The casting of Christan Bale from Russell’s previous film American Hustle, Margot Robbie, Robert De Niro, Taylor Swift, and many more were confirmed. The audience had huge expectations for this film, and the anticipation grew more and more as Russell kept the production secret.
The film is Amsterdam, released on October 7th, and it's an utter disappointment.
This film is set in the 1930s post-depression New York City. Why is it named Amsterdam? The origin comes from a flashback in the movie where three unusual friends—plastic surgeon Burt Berendsen, nurse Valerie Voze, and future lawyer Harold Woodsman—are trying to escape the horrors of the First World War and trying to find happiness in the canals of Amsterdam.
The characters are played by Christan Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington, and it's Robbie who tries to keep the film together.
Currently, the three friends are doing their separate things in New York City. Burt is having a tough time dealing with his wife and the scars he received in the war. Valerie is still a nurse with mysterious connections. Harold is a successful lawyer who falls in love with Valerie.
Soon they're entangled in a mysterious case where Burt and Harrold's commanding officer from the First World War is poisoned, and her daughter gets into a suspicious accident.
The trio are mistakenly named as the prime suspects in these attempted murders. They try to find a way to prove themselves innocent. Still, in the attempt to investigate the murders, they discover the infamous 1933 business plot, a fascist conspiracy to overthrow the US government. The rest of the film then involves the trio trying to foil the plot and save themselves.
Amsterdam is a mystery thriller with dark humour elements. One very evident thing is that director Russell lacks creativity. The cinematography of this film is very similar to Wes Anderson's film aesthetics. Many scenes look like they are copies of Wes Anderson's works.
This film had the budget and cast to make it a genuine masterpiece. As the plot was poor and the cinematography lacked creativity, the acting of a set of veteran actors alone was not enough to save this film.
Christian Bale is one of the most flexible actors out there; even he looks stationary due to his character building. The other veterans also couldn't display their full potential due to character limitations.
Amsterdam had great potential and could have been a worthy experience, but Russell just had to waste it.
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