48. Amsterdam

 

This was a beautiful roller coaster of a movie.

I loved the imagery, I loved the cast, I loved the story. I loved this movie!

I'll admit, I actually thought I was going in to see a anything goes kind of murder mystery, instead I got something a lot bigger than that. This explored a massive conspiracy, prejudice against the same men who fought for our freedom, and friendship. This was not a murder mystery, but it was amazing.

First things first, as you can see from the poster above there is a symbol a bit like a sun. I'm sure this isn't as simple as that I'm sure it means something, but I'm afraid I haven't a clue what it is. But this is the imagery I was referring to. This symbol pops up everywhere and I am in awe of it. Bale's facial scar around his eye looks a bit like this, Washington's jaw scar, Bale's back scar, not to mention every other little nod throughout the film that I can't be bothered to mention (it has been a few days). This is an excellent use of artisticness and I just think it is really clever so it is the first thing I wanted to bring to your attention.

Secondly, is the cast. Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, and John David Washington. I want a little cinematic universe with these three. The chemistry between them was brilliant. I didn't think that the film showed them being as close as friends that the trailers led us to believe, I think maybe the budding relationship was rushed a little and then we were stuck with them, but what we did see was marvellous. 

I have the greatest respect for all three of these people. The first movie I saw of Bale's was Batman Begins. Then he was popping up everywhere, but the movie that surprised me the most was Newsies. I think this movie has been renamed now, but at the time I watched it (back in lockdown for the original leg of the Disney Quest) it was still called Newsies and a young Christian Bale was singing and dancing on my Kindle screen. That was the moment my respect for that man grew. Then of course I've seen him in Thor: Love & Thunder now Amsterdam and I just think he is an underrated talent. The world needs more respect for Christian Bale. 

Margot Robbie commands respect everywhere she goes. I think she too is an underrated talent and despite the fact she is very relevant and has been for the last few years, I think the fixation with her needs to be more than just her sex appeal and beauty. This woman has RANGE. My favourite of her roles is actually Flopsy Rabbit from the Peter Rabbit movies. You don't see her, but you get to appreciate her acting talents through her voice, this is the most innocent medium and I adore it. Second of course is her Harley Quinn role, more so in her solo movie. She is overtly part of the fight to give women a voice and something to aspire to. I'm not saying women should want to be a psycho villain, but it gives us an anti-hero/villain to appreciate too. She isn't a sideline character anymore, she broke away from Joker and became someone new. Now us girls have a turn at the same chance all these boys have had for decades.

John David Washington is probably the most unfamiliar actor to me from this trio. The only film I have seen him in was BlackKkKlansman and even that I didn't manage to see all the way through. But his performance shook me, just like it did in Amsterdam. I am now a fan. This man is real, well of course he is real, but I mean this in the sense that he makes his characters so three dimensional. He has the emotional depth, no doubt this is from unfortunate experience in the real world, he has the look in his eyes where everything he says has meaning. This man needs respect, he deserves respect. I want him in mainstream movies, I want people to know his name. This man has the capability to carry the whole movie on his own should it have been necessary. Respect him and all that he stands for.

So Amsterdam follows two friends, Burt and Harold, who are wrongly accused of murdering a young girl played by Taylor Swift. This comes after they are hired to conduct an autopsy to see if her father was murdered. So of course this brings to light a deeper mystery and we assume they are just going to conduct a mission to clear their names. 

We then skip back a few years and see their introduction to their third friend Valerie, who is a wild young lady and disappears. When the trio is reunited unexpectedly she agrees to help clear their name and as they get closer to proving who did commit the murder to get them off the hook they get plunged into a much deeper conspiracy which they force into the light.

This movie is star studded. As well as Bale, Washington, and Robbie, we also have Taylor Swift, Robert De Niro, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Timothy Olyphant (who I thought was going to have a much bigger role), Mike Myers (who nailed the pronunciation of Canterbury which is fairly local to me), Zoe Saldana, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock, and Ed Begley Jr. That is a lot of famous people who you wouldn't really expect to be thrown together but that work none the less.

Amsterdam is very cinematically pleasing, I've mentioned that. But it was also a message, or a series of messages that targeted a certain behaviour. Obviously the main message is against prejudice and evil organisations (I won't go any further because of spoilers) but the one that hit me the most was the representation of the disabled. Amsterdam normalised a lot of war wounds. None of it was shown in a horrific light, but a very truthful one. They showed hospital care in dark, damp alleyways, they showed the comradery between injured men. They even showed the disgust that uninjured people threw their way despite not wanting to fight themselves. Amsterdam showed the real side to these men, these heroes, and please remember that this was loosely based on a true story. Please remember these wars were real and these injuries were real, some still are. We are all people, please be kind.

Finally, what I loved the most was when I was forced to relate to the trio emotionally. Amsterdam isn't really an integral place in relation to the plot or regarding the movie at all. It was just a place three friends used to recover and grow together. They felt that when they left their little bubble and real life resumed that everything would fall apart, and it sort of did. It was Valerie's fear that she would never live life like that again that made her want to stay, and I think we have all had that feeling once before. That we never want to go back to the harsh reality, we want to stay in a perfect moment forever. The illusion always shatters and real life always finds a way back in. It is a tragic way of life, but I am so pleased that Amsterdam managed to capture that in such a pure yet subtle way.

I am going to award Amsterdam a 7/10. I would probably watch this movie again, mainly for the beautiful cinematics despite the powerful background theme. I felt that it could have been longer though, they could have put a bit more in and really fleshed out the plot. We jumped around a bit with voiceovers and flashbacks, then plot twists and artistic standpoints. But other than the messages and the fact these men were trying to expose something I didn't really understand how we got where we did. It was a journey, a little rushed one, and I just went along for the ride without really paying attention to the destination. Maybe I do need to watch it again. Watch this space.

Have you seen Amsterdam? What do you think?

Join me here next time for a book review! I know it has been such a long time since I last did one, but I promise it will be a goodie!!