New York, 1933. World War I veteran Burt Behrendsen runs a small clinic and helps war-traumatized troublemakers like himself. One day he and his best friend and fellow soldier, lawyer Harold Woodman, are hired by the daughter of their former commander to perform an autopsy on the suddenly deceased father, who had just arrived from Europe and was about to give a speech at a gathering of his fellow soldiers. Burt and Harold had no idea how far it would take them, and that they would meet their soul mate, Valerie, a nurse in a French hospital with whom they had spent an unforgettable time in Amsterdam at the end of the war.
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Backstory
Seven years after the movie Joy, the star of multiple Oscar nominee D.O. Russell did not shimmer on the cinematic firmament, and now he presents his new project to the audience. As controversial and somewhat one-sided as the previous one.
The year is 1933. A one-eyed doctor who is interrupted by experimental pills. A rambling story that begins with the autopsy of an old man’s corpse. The plot for a solid detective story in the spirit of the best Hollywood noir films of the ’30s and ’40s is captivating from the start.
The director has trumps up his sleeve in the form of lady witnesses who get run over by cars, flashbacks to the times of the great war, where we get acquainted with the protagonists of the picture (a nurse and two soldiers), who are destined to unite for an intriguing story, which too quickly and obviously degenerates into banal fantasies about anything: backstage politics, the US government, closed clubs supporting dictators around the world. Sort of a Parallax conspiracy for 2022. But the problem is that the film lacks lightness due to the piling up of different twists and turns.
The director takes us by the nose by presenting Amsterdam as love at first sight – where art triumphs over the hardships of war. The investigation of the two friends is more like a masquerade with fleecy characters thrown in. Only the ornithologist played by Malek comes to mind, and the dorky detectives didn’t get far in their development.
Russell succeeds in prescribing the characters of wacky and nervous characters. As the puzzle slowly begins to take shape, Russell combines a conspiracy theory with the terrible truth of human nature.
Whether the script was inspired by the events of two years ago and the high-profile storming of the White House mixed with the director’s own fantasies remains unclear, but Russell clearly comes to the conclusion that the United States will eventually come to a dictatorship and the entry of the general as bait is the most justified appearance in the entire film.
The conclusion the director draws from this story of all-powerful love looks like an implausible excuse designed to brighten up all the shortcomings of this mildly bizarre story.
The glimpses of stars on the screen make you dizzy. It’s a shame that Russell forgot about a solid, solid story besides the pomposity.
The main thing is not to indulge in self-deception before getting acquainted with the film, looking at the names of the actors involved in the film one comes to the conclusion that this is at least the second serious director’s failure and that he has not come to his best form since ‘The Fighter’.
Margot I love you.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (52.3 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish.
