Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Starring Christian Bale, John David Washington, Margot Robbie, Robert De Niro

Directed by David O. Russell

I used to like going to all-you-can-eat buffets and pigging out on everything they had to offer, and while at the time it seemed like a good idea, I suffered for it afterward. By engorging myself on every type of food imaginable, I had become overstuffed and, let's just say, it had to come out somehow. It's an interesting connection between this story and "Amsterdam," in that the film serves as a cinematic metaphor for that all-you-can-eat buffet: it seemed like a good idea, but ultimately it became so overstuffed you just need to find a way to expunge everything you just devoured with your eyes.

In 1918, Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) goes to fight in World War I where he meets fellow soldier Harold Woodsman (John David Washington), and they become fast friends. Suffering wounds in the battle, they're nursed back to health by nurse Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), and the three friends become inseparable. They move to Amsterdam and enjoy their lives together until Burt decides to move back to New York to be with his wife and to start his medical practice. Years later, Burt and Harold are living in New York where Harold is now a successful lawyer while Burt's medical practice centers around helping those who suffered from the war, and neither of them have talked to Valerie, who remained in Amsterdam.

They're asked to perform an autopsy on their former commander and discover that he was poisoned and didn't die from natural causes, and then in the middle of the street they witness another murder and are accused of the crime. They go on the run in hopes of finding out the real culprit, leading them back to Valerie as the three friends once again reunite to clear their names, but discover something much more darker - and much more powerful - then they could've imagined.

Generally when you get an over-stuffed A-list cast, the film suffers for it, because you feel like you have to give ample screen time to each major actor. Lately, however, that seems to be changing with the success of films like "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" proves that you can have a great stacked cast and still provide a strong story, but "Amsterdam" returns to the norm. Although the film centers on its main three actors, there's so much going on around them that it's difficult to keep up, offering numerous subplots and side-stories that change the tone of the film and sends it all over the place.

The actors in question are Christian Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie, who all give tremendous performances and you can really sense the comradere and friendship that they share both on screen and off, and the best part of the film occurs in the flashback scene when they all come together. As they enjoy their time in Amsterdam and with each other, it's got a warm, whimsical feeling to it - before it all comes shattering to the ground after a murder occurs.

Typically a murder mystery is exciting and fast-paced, but here it drags on relentlessly, allowing side characters to eat up the scenery due to their famous status. Whether it's a story about two spies with a love of birds, or a rich socialite with a wife who has an infatuation with a former war hero, or an underdeveloped love story between a doctor and a coroner, the story feels like someone who has ADHD wrote the script.

That's not to say the acting isn't bad, but some hit it out of the park more than others, Rami Malek and Anya Taylor-Joy shine as the wealthy socialite and his wife (Taylor-Joy in particular radiates on screen, thanks to the fantastic designers J.R. Hawbacker and Albert Wolsky, who dress all the actors in wonderful period pieces), while Taylor Swift seems stiff and unsure, which is understandable considering she's trying to act alongside greats like Bale, Washington, and Chris Rock. Speaking of Rock, he also understood the assignment and gives a fun performance that seems equal parts script written and his own idiosyncrasies. Robert De Niro breeze-walks through his performance, while Mike Myers and Michael Shannon chew the scenes as the spies who prefer ornithology than anything else, and Zoe Saldana disappears in a very short role that's too small for an actress of her caliber.

David O. Russell has had a rough go at it lately, with several behind-the-scenes dramas that've all but blacklisted him in Hollywood: be it foundling his niece's privates or his notorious way he flies off the handle on set. It's odd that anyone would want to work with him, let alone a slew of A-list actors, but that's what happened here. His direction is all over the place, the story he wrote flies off the rails time and again, and it becomes a bloated dramedy that ultimately seems to serve as a tongue-in-cheek way to express the heated political climate in today's society. In trying to tell too much, he ends up telling very little, with nothing really memorable to stick out or make it something worth watching in the first place.

While the costumes and set designs are impressive, and the performances are strong and sure, it can't stop this runaway bloated train that is "Amsterdam" from being something of a train wreck in the end. If you got paid a penny every time someone mentions Amsterdam in the film, you'd recoup the money you wasted watching this almost two-and-a-half-hour film that somehow seems too long, yet not long enough to tell whatever story it wanted to get across.

The Score: C-