Movie Review: Black Book

Paul Verhoeven finally returns to the epic and violent style of filmmaking that he perfected with films like Robocop and Soldier of Orange. Set in World War II, the Dutch director has plenty of open ground to create dastardly villains, tragic heroes and an ill-fated, sweeping romance.

In Nazi-occupied Holland, young Jewish girl Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) is forced into hiding. When her cover is blown she receives help from the Resistance and attempts to travel to liberated territory, but disastrous events find her stranded and alone. Joining up with another Resistance group led by Gerben Kuipers (Derek de Lint), Rachel assumes the name of Ellis de Vries and agrees to spy on Gestapo leader Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch) in order to help plan an escape for several captured allies, including Kuipers' son. Seducing Muntze and working her way into the compound, Ellis slowly uncovers a conspiracy that reveals no one can be trusted and nothing is what it seems.

The hardest concept to bear in Black Book is the theme that the heroine Ellis cannot escape the atrocities of war. Told as a flashback, which hurts the film in that the audience is all too aware of Ellis's fate, Black Book ensures that tragedy is always looming over every character. As a Jewish girl in World War II, Ellis struggles to help those she believes deserve freedom, while seeking activities that will keep her too occupied to recount the loss of her family. She fights deceit from nearly everyone, hatred from her allies, and witnesses ultimate sacrifices by her people, and then as a spy infiltrating the Nazis she encounters equally negative treatment. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is trying on the audience that Verhoeven continues to place her on the losing side. With few wins for the "good" guys, the tone of the film is continually depressing.