Amsterdam (2022)

Summary: Burt Berendsen, Valerie Voze and Harold Woodman become friends when Burt, who is white, and Harold, who is black, are injured in WW1 and nursed by Valerie. When the three recuperate in Amsterdam Valerie and Harold become lovers but they part and later in the 1930s in New York, Burt is doctoring and Harold has become a lawyer. The two are hired by Elizabeth Meekins to investigate the death of her father, which they do and suspect foul play, which is underlined when Elizabeth is, literally, thrown under a bus and they are accused of murder. On the run they are directed to the house of Tom Voze who it is said will help them, and there is Valerie, now suffering from some sort of disorder. The three, reunited, are tasked by the secret services to approach General Gil Dillenbeck who is to make a speech which may encourage veterans to replace the president with him, hence the villains behind the plot will be revealed.

Content: No sex or nudity. Fairly constant use of pain-killing drugs and at one point Valerie sucks on a pipe, but does not fill it with tobacco or light it. The romance between Valerie and Harold is very lightly presented. After Burt and Harold have been blown up and are being cared for, their wounds are distressing. The General Meekins autopsy is just a bit gory. The three have a good time in Amsterdam in the art crowd with a lot of drinking and dancing. The existence of the plotters is revealed when an illegal sterilization clinic is discovered. They meet with members of the secret service, who are the providers of Burt’s glass eye. There is a veterans rally at which everything is to come to a head.

A View: The critics have not liked this outing much, despite the starry cast and it has lost a lot of money. I am always just a bit doubtful if the writer and the director are same person, because writers are very reluctant to discard any of the stuff they love. There is the plot to replace the president, which was a thing, even though the people behind it were never identified, and so here the writer has the task of shoe-horning in the friendship between the three characters so that they are the ones who are required by the secret service to set up the means by which the villains will be revealed. It is evident that what the writer/director loves is the friendship between the three characters, but it just does not fit. So maybe wait for it to be available for nothing before committing a couple of hours to it.

Margot Robbie has appeared in a number of very successful films which have been reviewed on this site, three of which are: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I, Tonya and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Margot Robbie has appeared in a number of very successful films which have been reviewed on this site, three of which are: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I, Tonya and The Wolf of Wall Street.