Amsterdam (2022) Dir: David O. Russell
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A star cast and an intriguing premise set this David O. Russell directed piece up for success. However, a raft of irritating negatives hold this film back.
First and foremost, the controversial Russell tries to create some form of deep yet heartwarming truth or sense of togetherness amongst the chaos of his own story, and fails spectacularly. It rings so hollow and feels immensely forced.
The film was 20 minutes too long at least, which, with the added issue of some terrible pacing, makes for a film that drags and never once builds an ounce of momentum. People were even leaving the cinema, which was not exactly packed as it was.
The story would have been very good, if it had been more concisely written - instead, it ended up being too slow and too meandering to keep attention. I struggled a lot with keeping focus on the screen, even in the cinema, where I am usually very much in the zone.
What's more, there is a distinct lack of weight or stakes to the events. At no point did I, as a viewer, ever really feel as though the characters were in any significant danger. The film's big positive comes from its cast - not only from their pedigree, but their performances too.
Christian Bale is the gem of this production, his performance is phenomenal for the majority of the film's runtime. His physical acting was such a big reason for the success of his performance, his control over his body here was borderline masterful.
John David Washington is fast becoming one of my favourite actors. His cool, calm delivery and natural charisma makes it almost impossible not to enjoy his performances, including here, where he has the second strongest performance behind the aforementioned Bale.
The last of the main protagonists, Margot Robbie, shows some of her immense talent at points throughout the film, but falls well short of her colleagues overall - there was just something missing. If anything, it's more to do with her character than her, but she suffered as a result.
Other notable actors included Rami Malek and Anya Taylor-Joy, who, it must be said, worked incredibly well with one another. Their on-screen chemistry was both undeniable and excellent.
The legendary Robert De Niro ended up having far more to do here than I had expected, but I'm glad he did because he had some very strong scenes.
I also enjoyed the talented Mike Myers, who never fails to get laughs. Furthermore, his on-screen chemistry with Michael Shannon is very entertaining.
Timothy Olyphant never once seemed to impose himself on screen, which is a shame, because his character ultimately felt like a real afterthought.
Finally, I'll mention Zoe Saldaña, Andrea Riseborough, Chris Rock and, randomly, Taylor Swift - who each gave pretty positive performances.
Overall, this was a film that felt like it had all the right ingredients but used in the wrong amounts, producing a meandering and painfully 'almost' film. Flashes of quality and even a wide array of great performances cannot prevent this from its unfortunate grave of mediocrity.
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