In the early 1930s, a Fascist group affiliated with Wall Street attempted, unsuccessfully, to overthrow the US government. Little known, the episode inspired controversial filmmaker David O. Russell to largely fictionalize amsterdam (VF). We follow two veterans of the First World War, one a balanced lawyer, the other an excited doctor, who find themselves in spite of themselves involved in a dark plot on which they will have to investigate. Which leads them to an old friend from the time of their crazy youth spent in Europe, just after the war, before their return to the United States.
Christian Bale, a regular at David O. Russell’s cinema, plays Burt, this doctor from a modest background rejected by the rich family of the one he once married. It was his in-laws who convinced Burt to go to the front, where he lost an eye, but where he met his future best friend, Harold (John David Washington), a black soldier refusing to be treated unfairly. .
It was in Europe, again, that the wounded brothers in arms met Valerie (Margot Robbie), a nurse full of surprises. Fifteen years later, Burt and Harold will be reunited with her in the troubled circumstances mentioned.
Around this trio of amateur detectives, a copious gallery of secondary characters is agitated – sometimes literally. For once, the supporting cast impresses: Taylor Swift, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, also a frequent collaborator of Russell …
And yet… Let’s be honest, amsterdam is not David O. Russell’s best film, far from it. The director had a golden period with The Fighter (Move of mercy ; Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor to Christian Bale and Best Supporting Actress to Melissa Leo), Silver Lining Playbook (The bright side ; Oscar for Best Actress to Jennifer Lawrence) and AmericanHustle (American scam ; 10 nominations), films where he managed to reconcile his hyperkinetic inclinations for directing, with disheveled, but perfectly cohesive stories.
This time, this balance is not there. Both visually and in writing, amsterdam means and signifies a whole host of things that Russell never manages to bring together into a unified whole. It’s a shame, because digging up this historical anecdote in order to comment on the current political state of affairs was in itself an excellent idea: in the same way that American democracy was once threatened by so-called patriots manipulated by the ultra-rich, now she is again. All this subtext is fascinating and relevant, and it is the most successful aspect of the film.
The anti-racist social considerations are also, although Russell insists so much that it ends up a bit like “tokensime”, but hey, we will refrain from impugning the filmmaker’s intentions. For the rest…
Manufactured eccentricity
On the narrative level, it goes in all directions, like the camera which hardly ever arises. Admittedly, the director is known for his supercharged stagings, but this time around, it’s just frenetic for no reason (the little Godardian and Bunuelian touches scattered here and there are nice, however). Even the very neat cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki, winner of three Oscars, cannot change anything.
Christian Bale, an invested actor if ever there was one, is in tune for better or for worse, as you choose. Indeed, its composition full of tics will please those who adhere to the proposal, but will irritate others. Margot Robbie and especially John David Washington, who share a real chemistry, manage, on the contrary, to be in tune without playing around.
Be that as it may, Russell’s propensity to stretch out a number of scenes for no reason, if not to highlight their extravagant content (a good example: the song pushed to three with Taylor Swift), risks being right to the patience of many moviegoers. This stylistic complacency exacerbates the manufactured side of the ambient eccentricity — as in I Heart Huckabees (I love Huckabees), cursed opus of the filmmaker. In short, a beautiful mess.