AMST ERDAM
★★
OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 134 MINS
DIRECTOR David O. Russell
CAST Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington
David O. Russell’s sprawling, intermittently enjoyable film is simultaneously overstuffed and under-nourished. The plot, centred on a friendship between doctor Burt (Christian Bale), lawyer Harold (John David Washington) and nurse Valerie (Margot Robbie) forged in the titular city during the ’20s, is chock-full of characters, story (there’s a murder mystery) and quirk — but doesn’t have the vigour to whizz you through it. Its second half brings in a dark chapter in US history (read: fascism), but it’s neither serious enough to be sharp satire nor sufficiently energetic to deliver exuberant farce. The film craft is on point — take a bow, composer Daniel Pemberton — and it’s winningly played by its leads, but the result, given the talent involved, is a tonally uneasy disappointment, a romp that fails to romp.