Pulling off a realistic comedy thriller with an array of eccentric characters played by Hollywood stars is more than writer-director David O Russell can muster, says Simon Morris.
Who doesn't love a star-studded comedy romp based on real-life events? I'm certainly not putting my hand up, and several months of publicity for a film called Amsterdam certainly piqued my interest.
It's written and directed by David O Russell which was fine by me. I certainly enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook and to a slightly lesser degree American Hustle.
But both those films were co-written by someone else. Amsterdam is all Russell's own work - and it shows.
The opening credit reads "A lot of this happened", which is true if you're easygoing about the phrase "A lot".
Certainly, there were doctors like Dr Burt Berendsen, played by Christian Bale, patching up fellow vets in New York in the years after the First World War. He was wounded himself, hence the glass eye.
Burt's wartime buddy, a black lawyer called Harold Workman, summons him to do an autopsy on their beloved former commanding officer. General Meekins' daughter suspects foul play.
The fact that Liz Meekins is played by pop superstar Taylor Swift, and shortly afterwards murdered, gives some idea of how profligate Amsterdam is going to be with its cast.
Harold Workman, incidentally, is played by John David Washington (Denzel's son), who keeps promising stardom but not actually making it. He's fine in this, just not particularly exciting.
Anyway, Harold and Burt flee the murder scene suspiciously, and Burt takes time out to flashback to the War.
There were three musketeers - Burt, Harold and Valerie played by Margot Robbie. I know, you can't complain about the cast, can you? But you haven't seen anything yet.
Having negotiated scenes with comedian Chris Rock - who steals every scene he's in - and a dazzling support cast that includes Bond villain Rami Malek, Last night in Soho's Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana and Mike Myers of all people, it's time to bring out the big guns…
It's Robert de Niro, of course, and while the character General Dellenbeck is fictitious, he's based on the real-life General Smedley Butler, a revered, highly decorated hero.
Butler was in the sights of a shady group of millionaire businessmen who wanted to depose President Franklin D Roosevelt and replace him with a military strong man.
Shockingly, this is the true bit of the story - ultra-right-wing businessmen inspired by what was going on in 1930s Germany and Italy.
It was halted - if not by the unlikely trio played by Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie.
But to combine a real-life thriller with a sort of Coen Brothers/Wes Anderson romp, featuring eccentric characters all played by familiar faces, calls for more structural discipline than writer-director David O Russell can muster.
Amsterdam may not make a lot of sense, but the performances are often far better than it deserves.
Margot Robbie, Robert de Niro, Christian Bale - you'll never catch any of these actors phoning it in, and as always, they're very appealing in Amsterdam.
It's also not afraid to touch on some pretty shameful history - like how black GIs had to wear French uniforms in the War so as not to offend white America, and how many secret fascists there were in American boardrooms at the time.
That's a lot to pack into one comedy thriller, and unsurprisingly, Amsterdam fails to make a convincing whole out of a grab-bag of ingredients. It remains 20 or so characters in search of a coherent story. And the fault, to paraphrase Shakespeare, is not in David O Russell's stars but in himself.
The ending in particular is a mess. It's so anxious to distribute happy endings to the deserving and punishment to the undeserving, that it starts to feel as if our heroes have actually brought about World Peace.
It seems unsporting to point out that World War Two will break out in just five years' time.
I know fiction is often a comfort when real life keeps letting us down, but it does have to be good fiction.
Just summoning the most famous people in your address book and promising them something will turn up isn't quite the same thing.
