Amsterdam opens with a title card that proclaims, "a lot of this really happened," but you shouldn't trust it.

An identical one exists in Fargo, and we all know that it was playing a cruel joke on us. In any case, the year is 1933. We find close friends Burt Berendsen (Bale) and Harold Woodman (Washington) in New York.

They first met during World War I in France when Burt advocated for enlisted men of color who were being mistreated. Burt and Harold maintain injuries from shrapnel. Burt was hit the hardest, losing an eye and suffering extensive facial scarring in addition to having his back torn apart and requiring permanent bracing.

Valerie (Robbie), a nurse, carefully extracted shards of metal from their bodies and transformed them into works of art. That's right: I'm talking about the metalwork: sculptures, textured paintings, and the like. Together, they made a break for Amsterdam, where they shared romantic moments amidst the city's famous music and dance scenes.

It's important to note that the events of 1918 are a flashback. The story will be in chronological order from this point forward. Burt went back to New York to be with his high-society wife Beatrice (Riseborough). She comes from a family that looks down on him since he is only half-Jewish. (He thinks they pushed him into the service in the hopes he'd perish.)

Burt devoted his life to curing the condition of soldiers who had served their country. He had given himself several excessive doses of medication. Meanwhile, after Valerie vanished one night and left, Harold moved back to New York to pursue a legal education. That's all we need to know about the crucial plot nonsense. In this case: a young woman (Swift) employs Harold to defend her and Burt to help do an autopsy.

Her father, the regimental leader throughout the war, was taken from them too soon. However, her death is undoubtedly their fault. They were standing close to her when a foul-mouthed thug (Olyphant) pushed her in front of a moving truck. And off they go in a scurry.

The confusing part has only just begun, so hang on. “All right, everything at once,” Burt says at one point. The return of Valerie, whose brother Tom (Malek) is a birding nut. However, he is a man of great wealth and influence. His wife a well-dressed crazy but is vital to Burt and Howard's plan to escape the plot's clutches (Taylor-Joy).

On the hunt for Burt and Harold are two detectives (Matthias Schoenaerts and Alessandro Nivola). Two undercover agents (Myers and Shannon) are working as antique dealers. Burt's (Saldana's) potential new love interest in pathology.

In addition, the lauded General Gil Dillenbeck (De Niro), can aid our characters in getting into the deeper pickle they need to get into before they can get out of it. How dire is this predicament, exactly? This is, of course, about as deep as pickles go.

Amsterdam is now streaming on HBOMax.