Perhaps the biggest cinematic disappointment of the year is how a writer/director and cast of this calibre could take a real-life political conspiracy as interesting and topical as this one, and produce a film as tonally disjointed and overstuffed as Amsterdam is.

Premise: Fifteen years after Burt (Christian Bale), Harold (John David Washington) and Valerie (Margot Robbie) met on the front lines during World War I, they become caught up in a political conspiracy in 1930s New York, after Burt and Harold are framed for murder.

Review:

The cast list for this film is truly incredible. As well as the three main headliners, it has Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek and Andrea Riseborough in supporting roles, as well as boasting cameos from Zoe Saldaña, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Alessandro Nivola, Timothy Olyphant, Ed Begley Jr and Taylor Swift. By any measure, that’s an impressive list of on-screen talent. Then behind the camera, you have 5-time Oscar nominee David O. Russell, who is responsible for one of my favourite films of the later 90s (Three Kings). All of which makes it extremely frustrating and disappointing that Amsterdam is such a mess.

Looking for the positives, there are some great elements in Amsterdam, first and foremost of which is the main three leads. Christian Bale is fantastic as the eccentric doctor Burt Berendsen, carrying the scars (mental, as well as physical) from his military service during WWI, and pining for his estranged wife (Andrea Riseborough) and the approval of her well-connected family. John David Washington is equally good as Harold Woodman, Burt’s army buddy who’s now a successful New York lawyer, despite the racial prejudices of the time. These two actors bring the deep bond and camaraderie between the war veterans to life in such a believable way, that you genuinely feel that they would do anything for each other.

“…the rest of the film simply doesn’t live up to the promise of the cast…”

The third part of their triumvirate is Margot Robbie’s nurse/artist Valerie, who nurses them both back to health during WWI after Burt and Harold are critically injured in battle. Margot Robbie has a more difficult task than either Christian Bale or John David Washington, because Valarie has to maintain an aura of mystery around her (at least during the first half of the film), which makes it harder to warm to her character in the same way that the audience does with Burt and Harold. Nevertheless, it is great fun spending time in the company of all three of them, and their interactions are responsible for some of the film’s best moments.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film simply doesn’t live up to the promise of the cast. Arguably the film’s biggest problem is its disjointed and often jarring tone. At times, Amsterdam seems to want to be a whimsical screwball comedy, populated by eccentric caricatures, with a quirky murder mystery at its centre. Overall, I feel like this tone is perhaps the aspect of the film that works the best. But at other times, the film feels overstuffed with attempts to tackle far more serious subject matter (including racism, fascism, mental health, and the treatment of veterans, to name just some), and although some films are able to balance the comedy and tragedy with a light touch, Amsterdam is never able to find that delicate balance. Then at other times, the film can even feel a little overly pretentious and philosophical, particularly when dealing with the romantic relationship between Valarie and Harold.

“…the whole is less than the sum of its parts…”

None of these tones are “wrong” per se, it’s just that they all conflict with each other, and the end result is a film that feels like it doesn’t know what it actually wants to be. Then there’s the plot itself – and again, there seems to be a conflict in the script between it wanting to tell a light-hearted caper about solving a whodunit, a quirky relationship drama about the bond between three friends, and a worryingly prescient political conspiracy. In relation to this third aspect, I confess that I’d never heard of the 1933 ‘Business Plot’ before, but reading up on it, it could have formed the basis of a fascinating true-life thriller, with a terrifyingly relevant commentary on the rise of the Far Right among the business elite in America, had the storyline been given the time and attention it deserves – but instead, it feels a lot like it’s just tacked on to give Burt, Harold and Valarie (fictional characters that weren’t involved in the real-life events) something to do.

There are certainly some moments that I enjoyed in Amsterdam, and that’s hardly surprising given the people involved. But overall, the film didn’t come together for me as a satisfying movie experience – a case where the whole is certainly less than the sum of its parts.