Black Book Reviews

• I can't understand what some major reviewers hate this movie

  
  By A1CSOUJBFJJZGF on 2007-09-27
  As many here have said, this is a beautifully shot, gripping, unforgettable movie, a great addition to the honorable genre of WWII flicks. In fact, the father of one of my colleagues, Dutch himself and in his 70s, said this was the best film he has ever seen. So I don't understand why, if a man in his 70s who is from the WWII generation himself did not find this film "prurient," so many reviewers have insisted that it is. The scene that most of the prudes seem to find gratuitous is (spoiler alert) the scene in which the Jewish heroine prepares herself to pass as a blonde bombshell so she can seduce the German officer. Clearly, she is going to have to dye or shave hair other than the hair on her head in order to pass as a natural blond. The movie shows her doing this. Why is it not gratuitous? Because the scene sets up the love triangle that will result in the conflict in the last third of the movie. It is absolutely essential to the advancement of the plot, and in my opinion, any reviewer who can't see that is not only a fussy old woman, but also not much of a reviewer. So if you have not seen this movie because you've read a review that trashes it on the grounds of prurience, please reconsider. And consider this: the most recent Ang Lee movie is so sexually frank that it got an NC-17 rating, yet there hasn't been a single review which has trashed it on the basis of its gratuitous sex. That says to me that some major reviewers are only interested in criticizing Paul Verhoeven rather than commenting honestly on his film. Another reason to see this movie is Carice Van Houten. She not only convincingly plays a 40's bombshell, she has that same 40s movie-star quality that you can't take your eyes off of. Truly, you could watch this film 100 times and never get tired of her. She is irresistible.
  
  

• Sexy, Smart, and Stylish Cloak And Dagger Flic in World War II Holland

  
  By A2T2A4YSJ9YWV4 on 2007-07-30
  Director Paul Verhoeven stunned the film world with his World War II masterpiece "Soldier of Orange"...and in a sense, this film is a second
  installment of his story of the Dutch Resistance. In the earlier film it was easier to distinguish the evil from the good...here characters are edgier and perhaps darker.
  
  The story begins when a young, pretty Jewish woman tries to flee to Belgium from Nazi occupied Holland but her family is betrayed, massacred and robbed along with other Jewish families. After a nail-biting escape,
  Rachel (Carice Van Houten), joins the Resistance and agrees to infiltrate the Gestapo headquarters. Surprisingly, she becomes attached to one of the officers, and the tale begins a spin into betrayal and counterbetrayal...so that enemies and friends are very hard to distinguish.
  
  There is a lot of old-fashioned World War II suspense and action that
  rolls the story along. But ultimately, this is a film about how hard it is to identify villains and heroes, when everyone is wearing a mask...including Rachel,of course - who is hiding her Jewish identity.
  
  Overall, the film sizzles more than Soldier of Orange, but the original World War II film is still the better steak. Recommended for the high octane action, interesting plot twists, and solid historical detail.
  
  

• A riveting WW II thriller set in occupied Holland

  
  By A1POFVVXUZR3IQ on 2007-09-24
  One of my special interests is WW II history, especially the Nazi era, and I have watched many fact-based movies dealing with the theme. Black Book is a first-rate thriller that depicts the trials and tribulations of a young Jewish woman in Nazi-occupied Holland. Rachel Stein the lead character is played consummately by the beguiling Carice Van Houten whose facial expressions do a lot more to convey fear, vulnerability, hatred and determination than mere dialogue alone. To ensure her continued survival and escape from certain death that awaits the Jewish populace, Rachel, having suffered the loss of her brother and parents, takes on the guise of an Aryan, Ellis de Vries, and is roped by the Resistance to seduce Ludwig Muntze [Sebastian Koch] a Gestapo officer and steal Nazi secrets.
  
  The actors in this movie are well-cast - even the Gestapo officer, whose very title should inspire revulsion is portrayed with a certain sensitivity, and he shows a semblance of humanity, a rare trait for an officer of the Reich. Even knowing Rachel's true Jewish identity, he falls hopelessly in love with her, and this is portrayed with a level of credibility given the contradictions inherent in such a pairing.
  
  The action is fast-paced, there is much violence, and yes, even explicit sex, but through it all, nothing detracts from the plot, only serves to enhance the story, and makes this a gripping, must-see WW II thriller.
  
  

• A mesmerizing espionage movie from start to finish

  
  By A2FEE88JZLDLXZ on 2007-09-29
  I think the best reason to view this movie is to watch Carice van Houten as she plays the part of Rachel Stein, a Dutch Jew trying to stay alive during the Nazi occupation of Holland in 1944. Rachel is forced to assume a different identity as Ellis de Vries ( recruited by the Dutch Resistance following the betrayal and deaths of her parents and brother), even going so far as to dye her dark hair blonde to hide her Jewishness from SS Officer Ludwig Muentze in order to gain his confidence and infiltrate the Nazi HQ. Carice is incredibly convincing as the sexy ex-cabaret singer entertaining the smitten Captain Muentze, with whom she becomes infatuated, and his fellow SS officers with her 40s Bombshell looks and sweet voice.
  
  The movie was a well-written, exciting, and suspenseful foreign language film (in Dutch, German, and English) from beginning to end. I highly recommend BLACK BOOK to anyone who enjoys good film making.
  
  

• A film heroine for the ages: BLACK BOOK is an enthralling,action-packed,character-rich WW2 spy thriller.BEYOND 10 STARS!,

  
  By ATXL536YX71TR on 2007-09-26
  
  4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
  
  
  Mata Hari and Greta Garbo move over; Rachel Stein a.k.a. Ellis de Vries is the new girl in town, and she is positively fearless!
  
  Paul Verhoeven, whose American film making career gave us such films as BASIC INSTINCT and ROBO COP, has returned to his native Netherlands to co-write and direct his "piece de resistance" (literally!) in his exhilarating and relentlessly thrilling BLACK BOOK.In BLACK BOOK Verhoeven has created a Resistance fighter/spy/seductive vixen heroine for the ages in Rachel Stein.She is a one-of-a-kind, and Dutch actress Carice van Houten probably has made her most important career choice in portraying her.
  
  Though The film begins on a Kibbutz in 1956 Israel where we meet a song singing teacher named Rachel Stein who chances upon an old friend from the War days,a former Nazi whore named Ronnie, Rachel's memory quickly takes us from the peaceful kibbutz back to the horrors of WW2 in 1944 Holland.This is where the story of Rachel Stein really begins.
  
  As a Jewish woman in Holland, Rachel Stein has been forced into hiding with a Dutch family in order to fly under the radar of the terror of the Nazi Occupation and the compliant Dutch Police. When the family's farm is bombed ,Rachel is forced by circumstance to begin a long line of improvisations to simply stay alive.She is gorgeous,incredibly resourceful and absolutely and unapologetically opportunistic as she,instead of waiting out the War in seclusion, boldly goes forth right under the noses of the Nazis,changing her persona to Ellis de Vries,a platinum-blonde former Berlin cabaret star ,relying on her incredible female powers,beauty (and she is!) genius and courage and takes the Nazi Terror on.Ellis finds her niche with the Dutch resistance which asks her to land smack into the arms of a head Gestapo officer,Ludwig Muntze,(Sebastian Koch).She becomes the Resistance's chief spy as she plays whore to a Muntze,who falls heartily and hard for the magnificent and charming Ellis.What was simply a spy job,though,now changes drastically as Ellis and Ludwig really do fall in love.This is where the final and most difficult task lies for Ellis (and that is all this reviewer is giving away!)
  
  Carice van Houten is an absolute rare find and no doubt the job that she so admirably does in infusing Rachel/Ellis with such depth,complexity and grit will land her all kinds of accolades and awards in the year to come.Ms van Houten takes the courageous yet fleeing Jewess Rachel and transfigures her into the ever resourceful,luminesque-Garbolike Ellis taking her into the world of roller coaster nightmares that leaves the viewer positively out of breath (and I was!)
  
  Sebastian Koch,fresh from his sucess in the 2006 Foreign Oscar winner THE LIVES OF OTHERS is even MORE convincing as Gestapo officer Muntze in BLACK BOOK.This is an actor of such depth that coupled with van Houten and a flawless script and deft direction, BLACK BOOK is going to be hard to top for the 2007 Oscar.With such a glut of overused and underachieved American "stars",van Houten and Koch are actors' actors and hopefully will keep making smart decisions to act only the finest material under the best direction.Watching these actors makes one wonder why Americans fawn over some of the "fluff" stars we do?
  
  What is neat about BLACK BOOK is that Verhoeven never gives the audience one minute of rest.He, though, never allows BLACK BOOK to become just another action-packed spy thriller; instead he gives us an incredibly deep and detailed story,set among the darkest days in war torn Europe that is character-rich,plot-exploding with great visual sense and style.BLACK BOOK is Verhoeven at his most mature.His last Dutch film,the 1983 thriller THE FOURTH MAN,though alright,followed by his American films,puts BLACK BOOK at the top of his distinguished directorial list.
  
  Anne Dudley,who heretofore was known to this reviewer for her classical-style music, HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN, has composed a compelling and riveting soundtrack that never overtakes any of the story,but cleverly moves the action along-the chief goal of a score writer.
  
  It is hard to believe that this film was 2 and 1/2 hours long! It flew by.BLACK BOOK is rated R and contains nudity,violence and coarse profanity.
  
  Great companion films on WW2 Netherlands would be THE HIDING PLACE and A DAY IN OCTOBER .It seems to me that THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE ,which is the true story of Edith Hahn's transfiguration from hiding Jewess into a Officer's wife may well have been the "true events" that inspired the screenplay for BLACK BOOK.The similarities are uncanny making BLACK BOOK all the better for it.DO NOT MISS THIS FILM!
  Sebastian Koch followed up this film with THE LIVES OF OTHERS-another triumph!
  
  
  
• Black Book
  By A1LQI6SF8Y94U1 on 2007-06-01
  Anyone who has seen Soldaat van Oranje (soldier of Orange) will want to see Zwartboek (Black Book) by Paul Verhoeven. The cast names will not be familiar, but all actors are quite competent. It is the story of a young Jewish female singer and entertainer who barely survives the massacre of a boat load of Jewish refugees by the SS when they attempt to escape to Belgium from Holland during 1944. She links up with the Dutch Resistance as a spy and insinuates herself into the good graces of a German officer who eventually shows himself to be a good guy reminiscent of the good German in The Pianist. The plot involves many plots and counterplots and moles and betrayals that do not need to be revealed here. Verhoeven is a gifted director and the movie is beautifully put together. There is quite a bit of good music in refreshing contrast to most American movies. The cinematography is excellent. The language is Dutch with English subtitles except for a few scenes in German or English. It is long, but you will have no trouble staying awake.
  
  
• Sequel to Soldier of Orange and New Perspective on the Dutch Resistance
  By AE3WFRLWYO8A0 on 2007-04-20
  Paul VerHoven has reflected on the Dutch resistance during World War II. In Soldier of Orange which was a powerful movie glamorizing the Dutch resistance with a protagonist who was more of an adventurer than a patriot, we are provided with a Jewish heroine who is a plucky survivor who does whatever is necessary to stay alive while helping the Resistance. VerHoven shows that the Resistance had in its midst persons who were closer to the German point of view on Jews than we had been led to believe in Soldier of Orange. There was good and bad in the resistance including rampant anti-semitism. Other than the heroine beautifully played by Caric van Houten, the most emphatic person is the German commander of the SS, who has an affair with Van Houten, and it is their plan to leave Holland at the end of the war together. At the end, you do not believe that many of the Dutch were any better than the Germans. This is a movie that must be seen. After watching it, I watched Soldier of Orange (on my top list) and appreciated why this movie was made. VerHoven wanted to correct the image of the Dutch that he had created in Soldier of Orange. It is filled with action more than any other recent movie but has a powerful message to give to the viewer. Paul VerHoven had to return to Holland to make this thriller to cleanse his soul.
  
  
• Tale of a Resistance Heroine in Nazi-occupied Holland
  By A3ONTLXQ85EE4G on 2007-09-15
  The Black Book" tells the story of a Dutch-Jewish girl, Rachel Stein, who works for the resistance in Nazi-occupied Holland during the final days of World War II.
  
  The film starts and finishes on a Kibbutz in Israel in 1956. A tourist, Ronnie (Halina Reijn) wis visiting Israel with her Canadian husband who she met during the liberation of Holland, when she is delighted and surprised to recognise the heroine (Carice van Houten) who had been a friend during the war, teaching at the Kibbutz school.
  
  After Ronnie and her husband have gone, van Houten's character begins to reminisce to the circumstances leading up to her first meeting with Ronnie, and the viewer follows her thoughts back to September 1944 when she was hiding from the Nazis under her real name of Rachel Stein.
  
  Rachel was a former famous singer from a wealthy Jewish family, who went into hiding when the Germans over-ran Holland. A stray bomb wrecks Rachel's hiding place, but someone who claimss to be working for the Resistance gives her the opportunity to flee. However, the group Rachel is travelling with are betrayed. Surviving by chance, she meets up with a different group of the resistance and begins to work for them, dying her hair blonde and taking the false name Ellis de Vries. After several of her friends in the resistance are captured, Resistance cell leader Gerben Kuipers (Derek de Lint) asks Ellis what she would do to help them: he asks if she will seduce SS leader Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch). At his HQ she meets Ronnie, who is working there as a genuine collaborator - or is she ?
  
  From quite early in the film, the viewer begins to suspect that one or more characters who appears to be in the resistance or trying to help the Jews are actually traitors working for the Germans. You also begin to wonder if the people in the Nazi HQ include more Allied agents who Kuipers' resistance cell don't know about. However, the twists and turns in the complex plot of the film keep you constantly wondering who is betraying whom.
  
  Some of the nastiest scenes in the film come after the liberation, because the final revenge of one of the Nazis is to trick the resistance into thinking that Rachel/Ellis has betrayed them. The "Black Book" of the title contains the evidence which eventually shows who the real traitors were.
  
  Most of the spoken words in the film are in Dutch or German, with subtitles, except for a few lines towards the end of the film where the mostly Canadian liberation forces finally arrive. I hardly noticed that I was picking up the meaning from the subtitles, nor rapid fire switch of the dialogue between English and Dutch with subtitles towards the end (though I did notice that one or two people who were supposed to be Canadians had distinctly British accents.)
  
  I can't make up my mind whether it was a good idea to bookend the film with the scenes on the Kibbutz in 1956. This tells you right at the beginning that Rachel/Ellis and Ronnie will survive and removes an element of suspense, though I was still wondering "How on earth does she get out of this one" for most of the film.
  
  There is also a shock ending to the final 1956 segment. This does not relate well to the main story of the book, and appears to have been added to remind the viewer, regardless of your view of the Arab-Israel disputes, that for those who were born Jewish, facing prejudice and conflict did not end with the defeat of the nazis.
  
  There is an enormous amount of nudity in the film: both Carice van Houten and Halina Reijn have magnificent bodies and both display them quite a lot. However, the nudity is always in context, and that context is usually painful or humiliating - e.g. when Rachel has to pretend to enjoy showing her breasts to a nazi pig who organised the murder of people she loved - so the nudity appears to be mainly intended to make a point rather than to titillate.
  
  There is also some excellent music, including four contemporary songs sung by Carice van Houten, as she also performed them as Rachel Stein in the film. Three of them are in German, one in English
  
  There is very little humour in the film: there are a couple of light-hearted exchanges at the beginning before tragedy strikes, and later there are two variants on the ancient "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you pleased to see me?" joke. Generally it's a very serious and rather sad film.
  
  Compared with the low standard of plausibility of war thrillers in general much of this film scored quite highly for credibility and realism, though there were inevitably a few things I found it hard to believe could happen. Most of the time it is not difficult to suspend disbelief in the story.
  
  Some excellent acting, especially from Carise va Houton as the central figure. De Lint as the resistance leader, Kock as a very complex Nazi figure, and Dolf de Vries as a notary who appears to be helping Jews escape give particularly powerful performances. Waldemar Kobus plays the horrible Günther Franken, a Nazi captain who clearly takes a delight in murdering Jews and robbing them, and Thom Hoffman plays Hans Akkermans, a doctor working for the resistance.
  
  Director and screenplay author Paul Verhoeven has said that
  
  "In this movie, everything has a shade of grey. There are no people who are completely good and no people who are completely bad. It's like life."
  
  I agree that this describes the vast majority of characters in the film, though there are one or two who do come over as pure evil, notably Gunther Franken, and SS general Käutner, played by Christian Berkel.
  
  Unless you like watching very sad films, this is probably one to rent rather than buy: I cannot imagine that I will want to watch it all that often. Most of the apparently sympathetic characters get killed, some of the rest turn out to be traitors, and overall the story is quite depressing. However, it is powerful, sexy, sophisticated, well made, and memorable.
  
  
• 2+ hours of moving exciting passionate filmmaking.
  By A3UP4LM4CRFNGA on 2007-09-28
  This is my favorite movie, you must see it. No one can walk away without being moved.Men-The Gods of Love
  
  
• Not a good movie
  By ALDSL4QX47BZZ on 2007-12-10
  This movie is awful. I you are under the age of 10 you may be able to deal with the historical mistakes and convenient coincidences, but otherwise this movie's soft plot will make you cringe. First of all, conflict is created in the movie when a damaged Allied bomber happens to drop its payload on our heroin's safe house. Coincidentally, she happens to be talking with a man with a sailboat at the time who is happy to help her escape to his farm with no regard for the risk to him and his family. Soon afterward she escapes a Nazi ambush on a barge that results in the death of her family. Although the Germans see her leap into the water they do not really pursue her and she swims away. Somehow she connects with the resistance (it is never really explained how a wet fugitive in occupied Holland is able to evade the Nazis, find dry clothes, avoid observation and conveniently connect with the resistance). Soon afterward a halftrack full of armed German troops surprises the resistance team. Although the group is completely surprised they are able to overpower the troops (and their armored halftrack) and kill them all with no injuries to themselves. They then decide that the troops "must have been working on their own" and that there is no need to worry about more Nazis. It is never explained nor do they explain how they conveniently get rid of the troops and the halftrack. There also seem to be no repercussions as a result of these missing troops. Our heroin then goes on to find a Gestapo officer who is lonely and sympathetic to her hardships. I could go on and on regarding the ridiculousness of this movie, but I think I have made my point. For those looking for a good WW2 era suspense movie I would suggest "Eye of the Needle" or "Enigma". This one is a loser.
  
  
• BLACK BOOK
  By A19X97VLDKGRP0 on 2007-08-14
  IF YOU LIKED "THE LIVES OF OTHERS" THEN YOU WILL "LOVE" THIS FILM. IT MAY NOT RANK AS HIGH AS SCHINDLER'S LIST,BUT IT IS A FILM NOT TO BE MISSED. THE YOUNG WOMAN PLAYING THE LEAD, CARICE VAN HOUTEN, IS A DUTCH VERSION OF KATE BLANCHETTE. THEY ARE BOTH BRILLIANT ACTORS. THE STORY OF HER SURVIVAL IS A STRONG ONE, AND THE PERFORMANCES OF ALL THE ACTORS WERE INCREDIBLY WELL CRAFTED. AN EXCELLENT SCRIPT, AN EXCELLENT CAST AND WITH PAUL VERHOVEN AS THE DIRECTOR THIS FILM IS A MUST SEE. IT IS NOW THE MIDDLE OF AUGUST AND I BELIEVE BLACK BOOK TO BE THE BEST FILM I HAVE SEEN SO FAR THIS YEAR(2007). I WOULD NOMINATE THIS FILM FOR ONE OF THE BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURES OF THE YEAR, IN FACT, THE BEST!
  
  
• What did you do in the war, mommy?
  By A2FEJIORC1MBG3 on 2007-09-25
  "Black Book" (co-written by the director with Gerard Soeteman) is native Hollander Paul Verhoeven's first Dutch language film in quite a long while. There is an entire generation of moviegoers who can quote lines from "Basic Instinct ", "Robocop " or "Starship Troopers" but have never heard of "Spetters ", "The 4th Man" or "Soldier of Orange".
  
  "Black Book" is a "Mata Hari" style tale set in Holland in the waning days of the German occupation, as the Allies make their post-D-Day push across Europe. Carice van Houten gives a compelling performance as a former chanteuse named Ellis, a Dutch Jew who has spent the occupation in hiding with a sympathetic farm family. When her hosts are obliterated in a bombing raid, Ellis is left with the realization that she will now have to live by her wits if she is to survive ("The Sound of Music" meets "Showgirls"? Discuss.)
  
  After a series of harrowing escapes and misadventures, Ellis finds herself in the Dutch Resistance. As part of a plan to spring some imprisoned Resistance fighters, she is asked to seduce the commander of the local SS detachment, Colonel Muntze (Sebastian Koch, in a nicely fleshed out performance). Things get a little complicated when Ellis begins to develop a genuine attraction to Muntze.
  
  This is a genuinely exciting war adventure, with interesting plot twists along the way (along with a few of those patented over-the-top Verhoeven moments, usually involving fearless nudity and gore). It's refreshing to see Verhoeven escaping from Hollywood and getting back to his roots;while I generally enjoy his big budget popcorn fare, I have always felt his Dutch films were much more challenging and substantive (Verhoeven the Hired Hand vs. Verhoeven the Auteur, if you will).
  
  
• heroes are ordinary people who react in extraordinary ways to terrible events
  By A1XZJ32DJS8YV2 on 2007-10-29
  It is not a straightforward story, not by any means. In the beginning there is a line: based on actual events. Perhaps it is true, maybe life is beyond imagination (or the collective beyond any one person's ability to imagine), things have happened that we can not envision, that truth is stranger than fiction. In any case, this is better than any mystery or whodunit movie i can remember, having those sublime moments where you want to hide your eyes because you know something really bad is going to happen to those sympathetic characters you have come to like but are forced open by the realization that you have no idea of what is going to happen to them and you don't want to miss a second of it. I was frustrated at my inability to guess who was the really bad guy, i was shocked at the chain of events at almost every turn and the twists are just plain devious and demented. It is an excellent mystery, a tormented look into how ordinary people react in extraordinary circumstances, a set historical piece with careful attention to detail and a love story, something for everyone (even as the box says: rated R for strong violence, graphic nudity, sexuality and language) Like i said, something for everyone.
  
  I put it into the category of a must see movie. a 5 star.
  there is a very good synopsis of the movie's plot over at the wiki. I could do no better than to encourage people to go read it. Nothing i could write could approach it in completeness. What i'd like to think about is heroes. Especially in the wake of Ken Burn's series on the War, i've been thinking about ordinary people doing heroic things when called upon by extraordinary times. And how so few people seem to be the right kind of heroes. We have lots of heroic efforts in war time, sadly the best and most energies seem to be called out of people when they try to kill each other, or try to survive being killed. The energies of Germany under Hitler ignited Europe, the heroic efforts of people literally burned down and destroyed the work of centuries. Heroes on the American assembly lines of B24's, many or even most women working for the first time out of the house, created waves of thousands of bombers to ignite European and Japanese cities. Heroes on the ground cleaned up the rubble and continued to build their tanks and armaments long after ordinary people would have quit and died. On both sides great heroic energies were called forth out of ordinary people who often rose to the occasion and did things that they themselves could not have imagined just a few years before. Maybe it is the curse of ordinary times that people sleep walk through life never encountering such events that allow them to show what they are really made up of. Maybe it is the salvation of ordinary times that we so seldom encounter such terrible years. But the shame is that they always seem to involve war, never the call to higher ideals and a life of sacrifice to loftier, more noble goals.
  
  In this movie we have examples of three types of people rising far above themselves and entering into that realm of heroes. The key character of Rachel, who is ready to do anything to avenge the cruel death of her family, These are our "normal" heroes, those we hold up to future generations and teach them that this is how they ought to act in extraordinary times, knowing full well that we didn't in our day and probably nor will they. Then there is the anti-hero, those heroes literally working for the wrong side, Muntze is this sort of person, trying to negotiate a truce with the Resistance. Daring to love in the midst of what he knows will be a losing war for his side, forcing the truth out of Rachel and using it to try to disarm his sadist and cruel commander. There is another kind of "hero" as well, if we think of a hero as an ordinary people who responds in amazing ways to these extraordinary events. These too come wearing black and white hats, some we recognize and have admired for a long time- the Resistance and those pitifully few Europeans who sheltered the Jews from the Nazi rage and death camps. They are protrayed in the movie, like real people with feet of clay, a farm family with Rachel in the barn allowed to eat if she memorizes a verse of New Testament every day before breakfast. Resistance members who exclaim that 40 good Dutchmen and worth more than any number of blank blank Jews. It is these sympathetic, well drawn, realistic characters that really give this movie depth and interest, that make it a really good movie worth thinking about.
  
  But like the movie, bracketed by two old friend's chance meeting in Israel, the real heroes of the story are women and how they respond to the evil, cruelty and death of war.
  Ronnie is the anti-hero for Rachel, the woman who gives into temptation and joins the party. She is the one who survives because she collaborates, she cooperates, she sleeps with the enemy.
  But Rachel too sleeps with the enemy, deliberately and with great preparation and seduction, yet she falls in love with the enemy, the ultimate betrayal and hopes to spend the rest of her life with him, if only the fates allow. Where Ronnie takes lightly what life offers, Rachel grabs and holds on for dear life. It is this constant contrast that the movie strives for and is it's big point, Heroes are ordinary people, doing extraordinary things, all the time demonstrating the mixture of good and evil that lives within us all. Those good Dutch people who pounce upon anyone at the end of the war labelled a collaborator and one almost beats Rachel to death because she stands up to their torment and will not publically strip and humilate herself. Those women like Ronnie who jump into the Canadian jeeps in the same way they jumped into the Nazi conqueror's 4 years before. It is a protrayal of the clay feet of our heroes, the twisted ways people respond to extraordinary events, each trying to make enough breathing space to keep them and their loved ones alive until ordinary times return.
  
  In the movie we recognize pieces of how we hope we would react to similar events, those heroes who rise well above and beyond, those villains who capitulate and sell out their friends for their own lives, those greed and gold possessed souls who think of nothing but how to steal and escape to live out their lives in comparative wealth and safety. It is the strength of the movie, and it's underlying script that these things are presented to our conscious minds for our consideration and analysis. The stolen blood money from the doubled crossed and butchered wealthy hidden Jews of the Netherlands, planned by a despotic Nazi for his final solution and safe retirement fund and ending up in the hands of the biggest traitor and with his death Rachel's and the Resistance leader's, ends up financing a kibutizum in Israel that finishes the movie being occupied by soldiers fighting yet another new war. It is these twists and kinks that make for excellent movie watching and rightly make this an extraordinary movie.
  
  A few notes: pay attention to the sounds, even though it is subtitled (you need to turn them on), much of it is in English, but much of it is in several languages simultaneously, a pleasure to listen to.
  
  It is a magicans movie, watch their hands, watch for the disinformation and false leads it presents. Enjoy those moments where you feel you must look away but are rivetted to the screen by the action. Look for the subtle and nearly humorous, whose picture is the microphone hidden behind? What are the store fronts that the Resistance uses? Look for the ironies that make for it's lifelike and realistic feel- the truck serves to avoid hitting street urchins who in turn strip the truck of it's camoflage of food leading the Nazis to the weapons and the death of many Resistance fighters. It is a good movie, i see from the wiki article that a book was written FROM the script, odd i thought that all the best movies were from good novels, maybe a few are from good analysis and retrospect on life itself.
  
  
• The return of Paul Verhoven! Black Book is artsy and trashy at the same time. Entertaining all the way!
  By A5QCKO0LL1D5E on 2007-09-02
  Finally taking on World War II and it's effects on the nation of Holland, Paul Verhoeven is back. He hasn't really dealt with this type of material since "Soldier of Orange" decades ago. His last film was the abysmal Hollywood sci-fi movie "Hollow Man". So now Verhoeven returns to the arthouse cinema, first time in many years. His ballsy style is in full evidence once again, filled with action, violence and sex but not gratuitously used like he sometimes does. The story is filled with twists, turns and many surprises, never disappointing in the area of entertainment. Some may claim that this is a Hollywood film masquerading as an arthouse flick but don't be so quick to judge. Hollywood would quickly sanitize an audacious film like this if they had a chance to produce it, that's why Verhoeven went back to Europe to make this film.
  
  As most reviewers have already summarized the necessary plot points, I won't dwell on them. Just wanted to write this review and say that Verhoeven is back as a director to watch! Hopefully his next film will be more ambitious and contain the same type of great storytelling but brought to different subject matter. So, go out and rent or buy Black Book if you care about this filmmaker or if you just like World War II movies in general. Although this film contains it's many cliches, at least it shows that not all Germans were evil. Sebastian Koch is the male lead alongside the lead character played by Carice van Houten.
  
  The title of this film is a bit random as this so called Black Book has little to do with most of the movie and acts as a sort of problem solving plot point near the end. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a deus ex machina. In conclusion, a very entertaining film indeed and a return to form for this director. For the record, my favorite Paul Verhoeven film is and probably always will be... ROBOCOP.
  
  
• So Good I Saw It Twice in One Week
  By A388QZBMSR18T3 on 2007-09-04
  Sauntering over to the Music Box in Chicago to see a Robert Altman film one Saturday morning, traffic delayed me so much that I got there well into the Altman film, but in time to see "Black Book" which I really hadn't planned to see having been burned out on Holocaust films. But am I glad I did see it. It is unlike any Holocaust film I'd ever seen before. I loved it so much that I dragged my wife to see it the next Friday night -- and she loved it too!
  
  I hadn't planned on ever seeing this amazing film, but it blew me away. I am going to try very hard to avoid revealing any spoilers because one of the great things about this adventurous, fast-moving tale of survival is all the twists and turns it takes. Our heroine can never really be sure who is one which side. Some good guys turn out to be bad guys; some bad guys turn out to be good guys; and some just stay the same. This is the sort of film that doesn't waste a scene. Pay attention ... because things that are said early on may come back later in the film.
  
  Beyond that, I don't want to reveal anything else. While I still think this is the best film I've seen all year (it's now early Sept 2007), I realize it may not be everybody's cup of tea. But if you like a film that totally engages you, goes places you don't expect it to go, never has a dull moment, is incredibly well-acted especially by Carice van Houten, very well directed, and offers great inspiration and insight into the lengths ordinary people will go to survive against all odds (that's not a spoiler because not everybody survives against all odds in this film), then "Black Book" is for you.
  
  
• A Stunning, Compelling Film on Every Level
  By A328S9RN3U5M68 on 2007-09-27
  Just when we think we have read about or seen all of the stories there are to tell about courageous heroes/heroines who sacrificed much for the sake of many during World War II, along comes BLACK BOOK (ZWARTBOEK) with another dramatic 'biography' of a significant figure. Director Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Spetters, Total Recall) is a much admired Dutch artist who is able to draw his audience into another world so real that it literally feels as though we are part of the process. And that is precisely why this film works so well: the audience as a participant drives home the film's message that war changes people, that from one day to the next it is impossible to distinguish the 'bad' from the 'good', the 'enemy' from the 'friend'.
  
  Rachel Stein (the enormously gifted Carice van Houten) was a Jewish Dutch born cabaret singer in Berlin until the war broke out, at which time she returned to Holland to hide during the Jewish Solution. A series of incidents in 1944 destroy her hiding place and thwart her attempts to join her family to escape the Nazis. She is left to fend by herself until she bonds with a group from the Dutch Resistance. Gaining their confidence she is asked to masquerade as a German singer, dye all of her body hair blond, enter Germany as the consort of a doctor Hans Akkerman (Thom Hoffman) and infiltrate the highest elements of the Nazi regime, namely to become the mistress of Gestapo head Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch) changing her name to Ellis de Vries. She stays in contact with the Resistance, places microphones in strategic positions, and with her friend Ronnie (Halina Reijn) becomes a Nazi party girl, singing at events while assisting her colleagues underground. The story is complex with many surprises as to who is with the Nazis and who is with the Resistance, and the story is so well told that we the audience are left guessing identities much the same as the characters.
  
  Paul Verhoeven wrote the screenplay with Gerard Soeteman and Verhoeven's dedication to his story is always present. There is a considerable violence and some sections that may offend viewers, but try to tell a true war story without including such aspects!
  
  The cast is brilliant, especially the multi-talented Carice van Houten, easily one of the finest actresses on the screen today. The entire cast is includes such gifted actors as Waldemar Kobus, Derek de Lint, Christian Berkel, Dolf de Vries, Michiel Huisman and Ronald Armbrust. The cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub recreates not only The Hague, Holland, and Germany but also a kibbutz in Israel with solid veracity. Anne Dudley has created a musical score that includes songs from the period (sung beautifully by Carice van Houten), and atmospheric scoring for the tender scenes as well as the many tense scenes.
  
  Released in Europe in 2006, it is not clear as to whether this film will be eligible for the Oscars this year. If it is it should win. It is one of the finest films this reviewer has seen in a long time. In Dutch, German, Hebrew, and English with subtitles. Highly Recommended! Grady Harp, September 07
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Black Book DVD
  By A1IWA90FHZZO3V on 2007-09-29
  Black Book the DVD is this generation's Casablanca. Simply put it is a World War II period piece, about a Jewish woman's struggle to survive in the last days of World War II. Rachel Stein aka Ellis de Vries is played wonderfully Carice van Houten.
  
  Another actress who I would like to single out for her fine performance is Halina Reijn, who plays Ronnie.
  
  So, if you like foreign films, and don't mind reading subtitles. Then you must see Black Book.
  
  In if you enjoy Black Book, you might also like The White Countess.
  
  
• Well-done WWII Thriller
  By AR1T36GLLAFFX on 2007-10-08
  Carice van Houten give her breakout role (at least in this country, many of her Dutch films aren't available here) in 'Black Book'. Inspired by true events, the film mixes tense drama, action, and the flirtatious acting of van Houten to give an enjoyable two-hour plus of entertainment.
  
  Much of the attention regarding Black Book has centered on the sexy performance of van Houten, and she is the center of the film. She in turn can be perky, cute, serious, and pensive, all while looking like a million bucks.
  
  The film explores the complex setting of the German occupation of the country in World War II. Not all of the Resistance was as noble and mythical as popular memory would have it, and not all of the Germans were vile, disgusting pigs. The plot has more than a few twists and turns, leading to a payoff in the end.
  
  As an aside, one nice thing about the film is the casualness it treats adult men and women in love and lust. Adult subjects handled in adult ways is a refreshing idea.
  
  There is quite a lot of violence and violent images in the film, but all central to the plot. The movie is subtitled but they are easy to read and are not obtrusive.
  
  The director's commentary is illuminating and interesting to listen to Paul Verhoeven's dissection of the movie as it rolls in real time. Mr. Verhoeven was a young boy during the war and remembers some of the events depicted in the film.
  
  Highly recommended.
  
  
• "We will kill that girl! However, wherever, whenever. "
  By A2BPDFR58H9575 on 2008-01-26
  After having read great amount of high praised reviews and comments about Paul Verhoeven's historic WWII Drama /Spy- thriller, "Black Book" which he made in Netherlands, I was exited to see it. I am a fan of Verhoeven's early films set in his native country. I've seen "Turkish Delight" (1973) and "The Fourth Man" (1983) and I found them both excellent. Joe Ezsterhaus who worked with Verhoeven said about him: "The guy is like his movies: brilliant, mercurial, very daring, perverse, a wonderful series of paradoxes and contradictions..." Both, "Turkish Delight", Verhoeven's variation of Hollywood "Love story" and "The Fourth Man" which reminds "Basic Instinct" but with much more class, style, and humor, match Esterhaus' description perfectly. As for "Black Book", it was a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, Verhoeven's attempt to make a film which takes place during the dark times in the Holland's and European history is watchable and entertaining. Beautifully filmed and moving along quite fast, "Black Book" is the story of a Dutch Jewish girl who tries to survive the war and the Nazi occupation in Holland. After the failed attempt of her family and dozens others Jews to escape on the boat to the liberated south which left her the sole survivor, she was able to join the Dutch Resistance, to infiltrate the regional Gestapo headquarters and to become the mistress of the Gestapo high rank officer, Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch of "The Lives of Others"). Verhoeven's gets a fine performance out of his young star. Carice van Houten, as Rachel/Ellis carries the movie mostly by herself. She is beautiful, talented, brave, and convincing in every scene. I personally don't mind the scenes of graphic sexuality and violence - anyone who is familiar with at least few of Paul Verhoeven's films, should be prepared for raw sensuality, aggressive movie-making, and more than one revolting scene. The problem of the movie, IMO, is that it tries too hard to combine many different stories and many genres but makes too many obvious and deliberate historical errors for the entertainment purposes and ends up as the unrealistic, exploitive, over-wrought melodrama with the poorly developed key characters (above mentioned Muntze, for example) and too many unbelievable thus ridiculous plot twists. If you are interested in not just entertaining but more serious and subtle films exploring Holocausts, I'd recommend Agnieszka Holland's "Europe, Europe" (1990), Joseph Losey's "Mr. Klein" (1976), and certainly, Roman Polanski's "The Pianist". If you want to see a film about disturbing relationship between a Nazi officer and a Jewish girl, two people who had met at the most horrifying circumstances but were not able to forget each other, see Liliana Cavani's controversial "The Night Porter" (1974) which is much classier than Verhoeven's movie.
  
  
• Taut Spy Thriller Against A Large, Color-Filled Canvas
  By A3RNP5X8ZGZIEI on 2007-10-19
  "The Black Book," Dutch director Paul Verhoeven's newest feature film, and the first he's made after a six-year gap, is also the first he's made in his homeland since the 1970's. And, surprise, surprise, it's proving every bit as controversial as his earlier works -- best known, "Robocop," (1987), and "Total Recall," (1990), both criticized for excessive violence. And "Basic Instinct,"(1992), criticized for excessive violence and prurience.
  
  Verhoeven, working with his frequent collaborator on Dutch films, Gerard Soeteman, is said to have begun writing "Black Book" in the 1980's. He wanted to salute the heroism of those in the Dutch wartime resistance, and Holland's Jews; this he surely did. He also produced a taut and suspenseful spy thriller, set on the large, color-filled, canvas of his wartime homeland.
  
  After an odd flashback-and-frame opening, the film gives us Rachel Stein (in an outstanding performance by Carice van Houten.) She's a beautiful, smart Jewish woman, resolute and resourceful, agile in mind and body. She's waiting for the war's end, everyone is; they all know it's coming. But before the great day, Allied bombers hit her refuge. She decides to move on to liberated Belgium, visits the lawyer who's holding her family's assets, and discovers to her amazed joy that her family still survive. But not for long, unfortunately; the boat on which they set sail to freedom has evidently been betrayed to the Germans, and everyone aboard, excepting her, is murdered, stripped of their assets. To revenge her family, Rachel finds her way to the resistance, where she will become blonde spy Ellis de Vries, and will be set to penetrate local Gestapo headquarters by any means necessary. Lucky for her, the local Gestapo comes in the good-looking guise of Captain Ludwig Muntze, (Sebastian Koch, good-looking playwright in the recent Oscar-winning German film, "The Lives of Others.") These two will soon surprise themselves by developing feelings for each other that may well fatally complicate their lives.
  
  Some of us could live without the flashback and frame device. But we must be grateful that the writer-director does not choose to enumerate, one more time, the pettier harassments visited on the Jews before the Germans got really serious. As to the usual charges: you try making a war movie without scenes of violence.
  
  Prurience? It's been said that Verhoeven demands his actresses give their all-- you could check it out with Sharon Stone, star of his "Total Recall," and "Basic Instinct." However, as to one of the scenes in this movie that upsets the morals monitors, Verhoeven surely didn't invent the concept that collar and cuffs should match. Ellis tells Muntze that, before the War, she was a Berlin cabaret artist. Remember the band of blonde showgirls that backed Sally Bowles (Liza Minelli) in "Cabaret?" They undoubtedly matched their collars and cuffs. This world of the Berlin cabaret before the war-- between World Wars I and II, in fact, was the world in which Ellis sung. That period is known by historians as the Weimar Republic, and the Nazis got their start running against its supposed decadence.
  
  There's another fairly upsetting scene in "Black Book, " where it appears that Ellis's friend Ronnie is sexually egging the German troops on, and will earn herself a very unpleasant night for her efforts. But, by giving her all, she's creating a distraction that will enable Ellis and Muntze to make a getaway.
  
  The Dutch have a reputation in Europe for being down and dirty. Verhoeven has previously said that they have always been more scientific, interested in detail; certainly less idealistic and more realistic than others. He added that, if you went back to Holland's art scene 400 years ago, the Dutch were known for their realism even then. He cites "Prodigal Son," a painting by the Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch, who is known for filling his large canvases, corner to corner, with some pretty colorful, outlandish stuff. At any rate, "Prodigal Son" shows a drunken man relieving himself against a brothel wall. Bear that in mind, please.
  
  
• Sensational Sex and Violence; Left Me Emotionally and Intellectually Unmoved
  By ASQ8KNNP3A7FP on 2008-04-27
  If you like seeing beautiful young women completely naked, and posed in compromising and perverse scenarios, then "Black Book" is for you.
  
  Carice van Houten as Rachel / Ellis, a Jew who falls in love with a Gestapo chief, is fully exposed onscreen, and things are done to her body that I've not only not seen in movies before, I didn't think I'd ever see.
  
  The sex only lets up in order to make way for graphic violence: a graphic scene of torture by water boarding, death by firing squad, and suffocation in a coffin whose lid is slowly screwed shut.
  
  Director Paul Verhoeven was criticized for depicting a Jewish woman as the lover of a Gestapo chief, and for depicting the Dutch Resistance as less than uniformly heroic in its resistance. I expected to be shocked by these features, but I was not. I just felt bludgeoned into numbness by all the nudity and bloodletting.
  
  I watched this movie on DVD, and after a while I just fast forwarded or closed my eyes through scenes I simply didn't want to watch: a woman exposing Ellis' body to the very Nazi who had murdered her parents, Ellis being drenched in bodily waste, yet another pile of corpses.
  
  The production values are very high. The movie looks fantastic. If you are into sex, violence, and sensation, this is the movie for you.
  
  I've read a lot of memoirs of the Nazi era, and met survivors. The Nazi era was not fun and games. I find watching movies about those days to be hard. When I do watch them, I want to feel that I've learned something, or felt something, that made watching the movie worthwhile.
  
  I didn't learn anything about the WW II era while watching this movie, although I did learn something about exploitation. I was unmoved. Carice van Houten is lovely, but she plays her role as a tough cookie. Given that she is a sex toy in the film, I found it hard to relate to her humanity.
  
  In the end, when Ellis / Rachel finally breaks down and begins to cry, one of her co-stars morphs into an eyebrow arching, mustache twirling parody of a Hitchcock villain, and tries to murder her by injection. That scene was so desperate for shock value I lost all faith in the film at that point.
  
  Sebastian Koch, who played Ludwig Muntze, the kind and sensitive Gestapo chief with whom Rachel falls in love, left me completely unmoved. This is especially remarkable given how terrific Koch was in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's film "The Lives of Others."
  
  
• a wonderful drama mixed with all the ingredients of espionage, spies, collaborators, and traitor
  By A32AK8FOAZEPE2 on 2007-04-17
  espionage, spies, collaborators, and traitors. beautiful carice van houten played a jewish young woman who sacrificed everything and suffered so much to find out who's the real traitor in the underground resistant organization did a great job in this very suspenseful wwll thriller. the ending is a very nice touch, because until then you'd never imagine or guess who's the real traitor.
  sebastian koch, who played a naive play writer in the oscar winning 'the lives of others', played a good german officer in this movie also did a fairly good job.
  very nice screenplay, casting, acting, directing and editing. this movie is highly recommended.
  
  
• Black Book Movie Review
  By A2MYUI8IT6UBUU on 2007-10-08
  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.
  
  Disheartening perhaps, but also riveting, as each new challenge promises excitement, suspense, and the burning desire to find out what happens next. Ample foreshadowing permeates Black Book, and it masters one of the most rewarding tricks in film. In several early conversations, bits of seemingly random information are discussed between characters. At first glance, this appears to be filler discourse or merely character development - but later in the film, during climactic moments, that information is recollected and revisited. It's especially thrilling because the audience feels like they are "in the know" of a crucial plot device.
  
  Flawless acting all around makes Black Book an easy early contender for several 2007 awards. Carice van Houten is a strong lead and magnificently draws the audience into her world of constant torture and misfortune. But as the twisting plot is steadily unveiled, her tormented character becomes more appealing and interesting, and one of the finest performances of the year emerges. Sebastian Koch also turns in an exceptional performance as the Gestapo leader whose temperament and sympathy betrays him to the real villains. The Resistance members each possess a very different and contrasting demeanor as well, from the tormented Theo to the heroic Hans, and the moral conflicts present within each one enhances the intensity of the drama. As brilliant as the other portrayals are however, none overshadows van Houten's searing performance and her tumultuous plight will resound with the audience long after the film has ended.
  
  "You shouldn't be so trusting. Not in a time like this." A haunting tale of love, deception, and betrayal, Verhoeven's Black Book mixes the horrors of war with the beauty of a condemned romance and the devastating struggle to survive in a world that has forsaken you. With an Oscar-worthy performance from Carice van Houten and a riveting journey not easily forgotten, Black Book is a must-see film from a seasoned director whose repertoire never ceases to amaze.
  
  - Mike and Joel Massie
  
  
  
• An engaging, exciting, hilarious and loopy film about the Dutch resistance in WWII
  By AGVWTYW0ULXHT on 2007-10-11
  I won't reiterate the plot here since other reviews have described the film in sufficient detail, but merely want to make a point about Verhoeven's work, that this film in particular helped me see. While "Black Book" may seem a far cry from Total Recall, Robocop, Basic Instinct, Showgirls and Starship Troopers (some of Verhoeven's best known Hollywood films) it shares with each of these films Verhoeven's keen insight into what makes a genre film tick and his perverse delight in undercutting and challenging the dichotomies and distinctions that tend to characterize standard genre films. This is Verhoeven's first Dutch film in a long time, and it recalls some of his early films before he went to Hollywood at the same time as it shows his fascination with the way in which films that recall conventional genres carry with them a set of audience expectations that can be played with and twisted. This film, beautifully shot and with exceptional performances, is an emotional roller coaster in which the viewer gets caught up in the excitement of an escape, then horrified by tragedy, then engaged by romance, then titillated by eroticism, then horrified as the heroine falls in love with someone we are conditioned to hate, then sympathizing with the enemy, then .... and so on. Verhoeven can make you laugh out loud and a moment later gasp in disgust and then become fascinated and then afraid. The film is nothing less than wildly entertaining, but at the same time (like all of his films) is underscored by Paul Verhoeven's intriguing brand of humanism: he recognizes and insists that there is no good and evil and that all of us are in some way compromised and yet holds out a hope and a conviction that there is the possibility of heroically, out of love and genuine fellow feeling, rising above the endless intrigue and selfishness and cruel lust and war that he clearly depicts as the dominating force of human experience. At the same time, he recognizes that this very hope and belief in love and human dignity is a fragile thing because it is so easily manipulated and there are so many who out of greed for power and money will manipulate this hope. His films remain compelling for continuing to hold out that hope, and for the genuine affection they display for even his most flawed characters.
  
  
• High production values, good story, but two problems...
  By A1EAFFJQ2NDHGC on 2007-10-29
  There are two things about Black Book that made me wish I had not spent the time watching it. Number one, the movie starts out several years after the main story. Because of this, we already know the ultimate outcome for the main character, and the suspense of all the travails of that character is blunted.
  
  Number two, the main character's situation and her trials are sympathetic. But the character is played so cool (not completely cold, but definitely cool) emotionally that I did not buy it. She gets in some incredibly tight spots and doesn't really show the tension and strain to make it believable. Not for me, at least. Maybe some people like that kind of a heroine, but honestly Lara Croft shows more humanity sometimes than this gal.
  
  These are two serious flaws. They didn't ruin the movie, but made it much less enjoyable.
  
  
• Too much happening on the surface, not enough going on underneath
  By A1JH5J1KQAUBMP on 2007-12-15
  Director Paul Verhoeven may have "gone back to his roots" with this foreign language production about the Dutch resistance during WWII, but he took a lot of bad Hollywood habits with him. Most egregious among them is the overly busy plot, rushing from incident to incident and thrill to thrill, full of coincidence and contrivance. The film never seems to be willing to slow down enough for us to really spend some time with these characters to fully appreciate their dilemma; Verhoeven and his screenwriters seem too impatient to get to the next plot twist. The cast is superb, but it is difficult to care very much about what happens to the people in this story.
  
  
• entertaining but often preposterous war film
  By A19ZXK9HHVRV1X on 2008-01-30
  "Black Book" may be based on a true story, but it often plays more like a corny wartime melodrama than a serious film about war. Suffice it to say, it has a lot of beautiful and glamorous people running around doing a lot of cloak-and-dagger espionage stuff - all while changing the course of history. That's not to say it isn't an enjoyable and entertaining picture, just that it doesn't rank up there in artistry and truth with the great European films about the Fascist era - classics like "Open City," "Forbidden Games," "The Cranes are Flying," "The Shop on Main Street," "Das Boot," etc. When you boil it down to the bare essentials, the theme of "Black Book" seems to be that there's nothing like a little hair coloring and a bar of chocolate to help an attractive young girl survive the horrors of war.
  
  Rachel Stein is a beautiful Jewish singer whose entire family is mowed down by the Nazis as they are fleeing occupied Holland (Rachel and her family are Germans currently hiding out in the Netherlands). As the sole survivor of the attack, Rachel quickly becomes active in the Dutch resistance, her assignment being to cozy up to a high-ranking Gestapo officer who has taken a liking to her. Soon she finds herself not only in bed with the Nazi but quite possibly in love with him as well.
  
  Paul Verhoeven has directed the film much in the style of his big-scale Hollywood productions ("Robocop," "Total Recall") - that is to say with a great deal of energy but not a lot of emotion. The convoluted storyline often becomes muddled and difficult to follow, but Verhoeven compensates for this weakness by keeping the proceedings moving at a breakneck pace (which is a good thing since the film takes an exhausting two hours and twenty-five minutes to tell its story). Unfortunately, the movie has been fitted with a musical score that sounds as if it has been lifted from some third-rate espionage thriller from the 1960's. Carice van Houten has brio and spunk as the movie's heroine, running around from one dire predicament and hairbreadth escape to another - she`s almost like a Dutch version of the perpetually imperiled Pauline - but most of the other actors simply get lost in the shuffle. And if you've ever doubted that chocolate is, indeed, the answer to all of life's problems, you will never do so again after seeing this movie.
  
  I must say that, even though I enjoyed it immensely, "Black Book" is probably the first serious film about Nazis that actually had me chuckling at wholly inappropriate places (some of the actors even hold their guns in a funny way). "Black Book" may be a Dutch film by rights, but it`s strictly from Hollywood in its silliness and corn.
  
  
• Good WW2 Thriller
  By A2FUOXFJ74B32M on 2007-10-15
  This was quite an interesting and suspenseful WW2 drama. Set in Nazi-occupied Holland, the film follows Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), a Dutch Jew in hiding, as she becomes involved in the Dutch resistance, eventually infiltrating the local Gestapo headquarters by seducing it's Captain, Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch). What follows is a tumultuous odyssey with lots of betrayal, sex, violence, despair, humor, and even love where you would least expect it. Good guys turn into bad guys and vice versa.
  
  Personally, I'm all about graphic (female) nudity so that didn't bother me in the least, although I didn't need to see that much of Franken! Overall, I thought the film was very good although it seemed a bit scattered, and there were a few aspects that seemed a bit stereotypical and/or implausible. These are just minor criticisms though, in an otherwise enjoyable and compelling film. Four stars.
  
  Oh and I almost forgot, Carice van Houten....Yikes! If only I wasn't married my love.
  
  
• Gripping
  By A2EE8JY32L7J43 on 2007-12-06
  What an amazing movie! I saw this in the theatre, skeptical that a Jewish Resistance fighter would fall in love with the local SS head. The movie developed the story so wonderfully that it runs so very smoothly. You watch as she loses her family, begins to work for the dutch resistance and all that happens afterwards. I have been eagerly waiting for the movie to be released! Don't wait to see it!
  
  
• A Truly Great Film
  By A13D1WTFEMS9VH on 2008-05-21
  I have lately watched a number of European films and have come to the conclusion that, for straightforward storytelling with gripping scripts, wonderful production values and superb actors, the Europeans are putting Hollywood to shame.
  
  In the present case, this is an absolutley outstanding movie. I cannot praise it highly enough. Carice van Houten gives a top-notch performance. What a woman! None of that cheap, phony Hollywood "strong woman" nonsense here. This is a real woman with guts, brains and heart. Everyone is perfectly cast and utterly believable. The story itself is highly entertaining, adventurous, moving, suspenseful and full of surprises as Carice's character moves through her life-changing WWII experience.
  
  This is what movies are all about folks.
  
  

• The Lives of Others
• Eastern Promises (Widescreen Edition)
• 3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition)
• No Country for Old Men
• Michael Clayton (Widescreen Edition)