Film Review: Amsterdam could have been a powerful, timely story

John David Washington as Harold, Margot Robbie as Valerie, Rami Malek as Tom, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Libby. Picture: Merie Weismiller Wallace

Amsterdam

★★★☆☆

Set in New York in the 1930s, Amsterdam (15A) stars Christian Bale as amateur sleuth, WWI veteran Burt Berendsen, who is reluctantly persuaded by his friend Harold Woodman (John David Washington) to investigate the apparent murder of their former commanding officer, General Meekins.

Teaming up with their old pal Valerie (Margot Robbie), a combination of nurse, artist and spy who ministered to Burt and Harold when they were wounded during the war, the trio set out ‘to serve the good of the world’, only to discover that the world is actually more interested in profit and loss than good and evil.

Written and directed by David O Russell, Amsterdam boasts an impressive ensemble cast — Chris Rock, Taylor Swift, Mike Myers, Robert De Niro, Zoe Saldana, and many more — that largely accounts for its meandering plot: with so many characters to accommodate, the story is a lot less focused than cinematic murder investigations tend to be.

John David Washington as Harold, Christian Bale as Burt, and Margot Robbie as Valerie in 20th Century Studios' Amsterdam. Picture: Merie Weismiller Wallace

Christian Bale puts in a strong performance as an agitator for abandoned ‘voiceless veterans’, but the essence of what could have been a powerful, timely story — a Deep State plot to subvert American democracy — is dissipated by too many excursions into offbeat whimsy.

(cinema release)