Amsterdam’s heart might be in the right place—a farce about incipient fascism feels fairly timely—but the execution is lacking. Both a tonal mishmash in which every actor feels like they’re in a slightly different movie and also saddled with an unnecessarily complicated narrative structure, the whole thing is just slightly off.
It’s a shame, because writer/director David O. Russell is usually pretty good at balancing tones and mixing genres. Silver Linings Playbook deftly combined comedy and drama and sweet goofiness for something like a slightly more adult Little Miss Sunshine. Three Kings melded comedy and action with political agitprop to winning effect. And I remain deeply fond of American Hustle, a movie that maybe have been slightly extravagant but to great success since Russell...