It may have the best of intentions, but "Amsterdam" is a film which crumbles under its own weight. It is a movie that offers the sense that it desperately wishes to be Important and in pushing for that added weight, that added meaning, that added depth, it undercuts everything that works about the film. Oh, there are most certainly some great aspects to "Amdsterdam," chiefly the performances, but it simply cannot get out of its own way.
