With: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Zoe Saldana, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Timothy Olyphant, Max Perlich, Ed Begley Jr.
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Written by: David O. Russell
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Directed by: David O. Russell
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MPAA Rating: R for brief violence and bloody images
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Running Time: 134
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Date: 10/07/2022
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Never Netherlands
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Wildly ambitious and thoroughly complex, this sprawling David O. Russell period piece unfortunately has a thick, gummy quality, as if made in a vacuum, yet it's too relevant to entirely dismiss.
It's the 1930s in New York, and Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) is a doctor working to ease the pain of wounded war veterans. His best friend Harold Woodman (John David Washington) is a lawyer. Together, they are hired by Liz Meekins (Taylor Swift) to perform a secret autopsy on General Bill Meekins, Burt and Harold's former commanding officer, to determine if he was actually murdered. Shortly after, Liz is shoved in front of a moving car, and is run over in the street. Burt and Harold are blamed.
Flashing back to 1918, in the war, young Burt and Harold are badly injured and sent to the hospital, tended by nurse Valerie (Margot Robbie). The three form a strong friendship — and Harold and Valerie fall in love — and after the war they spend a beautiful period living in Amsterdam. Back in the 1930s, Burt and Harold must find a way to clear their name, which involves getting another General, Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro), to speak at the veteran's reunion, thereby exposing the real killers. Their past also finds a way of catching up to them, and lends a helpful hand.
The airless quality of Amsterdam — perhaps a combination of lush, glossy cinematography by the great Emmanuel Lubezki and Russell's weird sense of humor — gives it an odd dreamy effect, and it's sometimes a little too easy for one's brain to wander away. Describing the plot is a challenge, and even after going on at some length, one might have somehow skipped over characters played by such heavyweights as Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Zoe Saldana, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, and more.
Bale's outsized performance, frequently recalling Al Pacino's scenery-chewing "Big Boy Caprice" in Dick Tracy, is another factor that keeps the movie from feeling ungrounded; it's like a crazy cartoon, in which earthly logic does not apply. Robie joins him in the movie's second half when her character stumbles and wobbles about, thanks to a case of vertigo. Yet while Amsterdam is exceedingly busy, it's not necessarily messy; Russell attacks it with an admirable confidence. And since its 1930s-era political incidents appear to be unfolding again in our time, perhaps it's a movie that will live on through multiple viewings and further context.
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