By: Andrew Wing

Amsterdam is a 2022 period comedy thriller film written, directed, and produced by David O. Russell (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook). Led by Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, The Big Short), Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, I, Tonya), and John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman, Tenet), the film features an ensemble cast including Chris Rock (Grown Ups, Fargo), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, The Queen’s Gambit), Zoe Saldaña (Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy), Mike Myers (Austin Powers films series, Shrek film series), Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals, The Shape of Water), Timothy Olyphant (Justified, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Andrea Riseborough (The Death of Stalin, Mandy), Taylor Swift (Valentine’s Day, Cats), Matthias Schoenaerts (The Danish Girl, Red Sparrow), Alessandro Nivola (The Neon Demon, The Mant Saints of Newark), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody, No Time to Die), and Robert De Niro (Raging Bull, Goodfellas).

The story is based on the Business Plot, a 1933 political conspiracy in the US, and follows three friends—a doctor (Bale), a nurse (Robbie), and a lawyer (Washington)—who are caught in the mysterious murder of a retired US general.

Filmed in Los Angeles from January to March 2021, it was Russell's first film since Joy (2015), and it was released in the United States on October 7, 2022, by 20th Century Studios. Despite it being a box office bomb, with estimated losses for the studio reaching $97 million, a sequel titled True Love, which is set to be directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), comes out on October 6, 2023.

THE GOOD

A year ago now, if you were to ask me my top five most anticipated films of 2022, I would have definitely had this movie, which a year ago was called “Canterbury Glass”, in that list. Why you might ask? Well for starters, I am a fan of David O. Russell’s films, specifically The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, so I was excited to see his first film since 2015. But more than that, this cast is about as stacked as a cast can get. I mean Christian Bale and Margot Robbie are arguably two of the best actors working today, and John David Washington and Anya Taylor-Joy are no joke either. Not to mention Oscar winners Rami Malek and Robert De Niro’s involvement, this cast is just insane! But was the stacked cast enough to make for another great David O. Russell film? Keep reading to find out!

It, unfortunately, was not, but the blame for this movie’s failure does not fall on the cast, because the majority of the cast gave solid performances. First, with the man himself, Christian Bale, who I would say is the best actor working right now since Daniel Day-Lewis retired. In Amsterdam, Bale plays Burt Berendsen, a doctor and war veteran who wears a glass eye. This is a character unlike anything Bale has played before, but I thought he gave a really good performance. I for one actually liked the accent he has in this and I found his character to be pretty funny at the end of the day. It’s a shame the movie wasn’t better, because if it were, I really think Bale would be in the Best Actor race, but nevertheless, he will be there for many more years to come.

Next with Margot Robbie, who is just an insanely talented actress. She, like Bale, also plays a character that I found to be different from anything she has done before as she plays an eccentric nurse who makes art out of shrapnel removed from the soldiers. Nevertheless, I loved every second she was on the screen, and I just haven’t seen Robbie give a bad performance yet in her young illustrious career. That said, I just can’t wait to check out Robbie’s next two films that she will star in, Babylon (see our full preview here) which hits theaters in a couple of weeks, and Barbie (see our full preview here), the huge film from Greta Gerwig that comes to theaters next summer!

Those two definitely stole the show in my opinion, but there were a couple of other performances that I liked, and those were Michael Shannon, Austin Powers himself, Mike Myers, and this other actor you might have heard of, Robert De Niro. Aside from the performances, there, unfortunately, wasn’t a ton more that I loved about Amsterdam. I will say though that the production design was fantastic. The setting was 1920s New York City and because of the impeccable production design and also costume design, it really felt true to that time and place so cheers to that!

THE BAD

Alright, let’s do this. Now I said I’m a fan of David O. Russell’s past films, and I am, and I don’t know if I can definitively say this because I haven’t seen Joy yet, but this has got to be his worst film yet. I am just at a loss for words over this screenplay. The story is just so wacky and exhausting and the plot is just very busy. Seriously though, Russell was trying to say something about race relations and concentration of wealth, while also trying to say something about veterans and fascism and I just think he fumbled the bag. As for his direction, I didn’t think that was all too great either. The editing was bad and the film is way too freaking long, and at the end of the day, there was just a massive lack of vision with this film and it’s quite disappointing, to say the least.

Also, I was pretty let down by some of the other performances we got from the ensemble cast. I thought Anya Taylor-Joy was fine, but her character was strange and we didn’t get nearly enough of her to understand her character. Aside from her, there were two male performers here that I just didn’t like in this film. I’m just not a big fan of Rami Malek, and it still pains me to this day that he won Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody over Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born. And last but not least, John David Washington just did nothing for me with his performance in this. I don’t know, maybe I’m alone in thinking that, but I just hope he bounces back in whatever he does next because he is better than this.

THE VERDICT

Despite great performances from Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and a few other cast members, Amsterdam is just a mess and is unfortunately David O. Russell’s worst film to date. From the wacky story to the muddled tone, the movie is just trying to be something that it isn’t and that plus the ridiculous runtime led to this being one of the more exhausting watches of the year.