“Amsterdam” Movie Review
There was no hype for the movie “Amsterdam,” and rightfully so. It’s hard to be disappointed by something that got very little advertisement, yet it was still a disappointing film.
“Amsterdam” takes place in the 1930s and surrounds two World War I veterans, Burt Berendsen played by Christian Bale and Harold Woodman played by John David Washington. These two are accompanied throughout the movie by war nurse Valerie Voze who is played by Margot Robbie.
This trio is together for the majority of the movie after they meet during the war and spend several years in Amsterdam creating art and enjoying each other's company.
While this is how the film gets its name it is not where the story begins or even what the majority of the plot is about.
It is still confusing as to why the film is called “Amsterdam”; this part of the plot is referenced quite rarely. The trio comments on how they want to go back there, but the significance of Amsterdam was not clear.
The film actually opens to Berendsen post war working as a doctor patching up injured veterans, and he is asked to perform an autopsy on old friend, Bill Meekins, who was suspected to be murdered.
Right before the autopsy occurs, Berendsen and Woodman meet Meekins daughter Liz Meekins played by Taylor Swift. It’s hard to imagine that this cast gets anymore out there but it does.
Swift is only in two scenes because she is killed off shortly after her appearance. This may seem like a spoiler but this occurs about ten minutes into the movie and this absolutely poor use of CGI was shared online before the movie was released.
This movie is definitely a disappointment to all Swiftie’s out there. Many will say Swift is the music industry, but that is probably where she should stay. She did a well enough job acting, but compared to her co-stars she was noticeably a less talented actress.
Another star that pops in and out of the film is Chris Rock who plays another veteran. While this film was not a comedy it’s share of dry humor to keep the audience entertained, yet the funniest scenes were those of Chris Rock's character in war settings.
This was filmed way before the Oscars where Chris Rock was slapped so this aged well. It was difficult to watch the scene and not think back to that iconic pop culture moment.
Anyhow, the three main characters spend the rest of the film trying to uncover what really happened to Meekins and his daughter.
The ending is out of absolute left field. Part of the ending being so surprising might have been how hard it was to follow the plot. The whole time they are referencing more and more characters who could be suspects, but it got to a point where it felt like they were just throwing around names and there was no sense of organization.
About halfway through the film they bring in yet another main character who was a general in the war and is played by Robert De Niro. His character was well written but if you are not a history buff the role of his character was hard to understand.
Of course at the end they figure out the ploy, and the whole movie ends up being one big political commentary because, oh yeah, this is loosely based on a true story.
Obviously mysteries of this sort keep the audience in the theater because they want to know who did it, but this movie was way too long and barely had that aspect going for it. A point came where the film was so confusing other questions were arising besides who did it.
While the plot was not what it could have been, the cast did great with what they had to work with. There was a real sense of chemistry between the actors which led to the whole movie being more bearable in general.
There were several scenes throughout the movie where characters were communicating just by looking at each other. These scenes contained some of the funniest content throughout the whole film. It was very much like Jim Halpert from “The Office”.
Christian Bale specifically did a great job getting into character. The veteran he played had been injured during the war so he has an egregious amount of scars on his face and has a fake eye that he messes with throughout the film.
While this may have taken away from other actors' performances, it definitely led him to throw himself into this character.
Aside from that, the soundtrack was well done in the way that it felt right for the time period but still delivered a sense of nerves and excitement to go along with the plot.
All in all, “Amsterdam” was fine to watch, but no part of it was exciting and there really is no need to see it again or even finish it the first time.
Rating: 1/5
Savannah Swartz is a first-year communications major. To contact her, email sms9072@psu.edu.
