Amsterdam (2022)
Directed by David O. Russel
The movie opens with the simple phrase “A lot of this really happened”, which is technically true, as it's based on the Business Plot of 1933 (the most boring name for an evil conspiracy). I would recommend not to look it up, before the movie, as it's much more fun to figure it out, alongside the characters.
The main trio Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie) and Harold Woodsman (John David Washington) all meet in 1918 France as Burt and Harold are injured in battle and nursed back to health by Valerie, while having more fun than warranted in a war-time hospital. Harold and Valerie fall in love immediately and all three (Burt doesn’t want to leave his best friend) decide to move to Amsterdam, where they live together and develop a beautiful and strong bond. I’m kind of bummed out that the movie wasn’t more overt about the fact that they had a polyamorous relationship. I mean, if it looks like a duck…..
Burt eventually leaves for New York, because he misses his wife (hard eye-roll) and sonn after that Valerie leaves Harold unannounced and he eventually also returns to New York.
In 1933 Bill Meekins, Harold and Burt’s commander during the war, dies under mysterious circumstances and the pair is hired by Meekins’ daughter to investigate. As they take on the case, they uncover a crazy conspiracy brewing in the upper echelons of New York high society. If you guessed Nazis, yeah … kind of.
Although the movie is chock-full of political intrigue, racism and other societal woes, it treats them as a given and never pontificates about them, giving the matters at hand even more gravitas and more room to breath. This nonchalant treatment of the truth creates a bizarre atmosphere, where the characters are allowed to exist outside of their supposed social roles. They are allowed to breathe and are never used as stand-ins for an entire group of people i.e. black men, women, etc., even when other characters try to hoist that particular responsibility upon them.
The chemistry between the characters is great and you genuinely believe that their friendship can and will outlast, whatever the universe throws their way. The sepia-toned and warm golden color palette is a joy to look at and the cinematography is splendid, using a combination of close-ups and fisheye views to give the film a quirky and slightly out-of-touch look.
Ostensibly this movie is made to look and sound beautiful, which is one of its main themes. Throughout the movie the plot stops abruptly at times to let the characters and us marvel at the beauty around them. Maybe someone is singing in the street or there’s some art to admire or to discuss and maybe there is just a good song on the radio. After the art break, the movie just resumes the story, where it left off.
Amsterdam is a movie set on a world stage and you can certainly watch it for its amazing performances, the interesting whodunnit and its bonkers conspiracy, but all those things are treated more and more as background noise, as the movie presents its actual themes: beauty, music, friendship and love.