Fascinating spy thriller set amongst World War Two with genre fusion, twits, turns and war-time action to soak up.

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2008)

It felt as if Black Book was a James Bond story taking place during the Second World War but with a female lead instead of the man himself; it felt as if it was the sort of James Bond film that is half way between that espionage, intrigue and one-liner Bond that we knew for years and half way between the 'updated' Bond, ala Casino Royale. Fact of the matter is; this is a secret agent, 'sexpionage' spy flick that includes elements of genuine romance, subplots within subplots and gritty wartime violence  I also found it to be better than all of the Bond films as well as the first two Bourne films.
By the time the end of the Second World War arrives in Black Book, about a half hour to the end of the film, the film has the audacity to keep going. But such is the audacity of the film; to have the major event the film is set beneath finish but the plot to only become further complicated as the proverbial grip is tightened; never before have harmless Dutch villagers waving miniature flags been such a juxtaposed backdrop for underhand and nasty events of double cross and murder. Black Book is a European produced film that does not really fall into either of most of European cinema's dominant aesthetics; those being 'art' and 'realism'  you can tell the director has just spent the last twenty years in Hollywood. Black Book is more of a character study split into different chapters; a character study that the audience is never sure which way it will sway and a character study that would have us question if good people are actually that good and if evil people are actually that evil.
The film tells the story of a mole; of a spy named Ellis (van Houten) who adopts a secret agent role but unlike Bond or Bourne or any other secret agent we may have seen in a film, she is not trained right from the beginning thus forcing another layer, another goal to her journey. This is hinted at very early on before it is even proposed that she become a spy when she says so herself that despite seeing loved ones brutally mowed down, she "cannot cry" which tells us of soldier qualities: no matter what the situation; no matter who dies or what happens  soldier on. There is another memorable scene on a train when she uses another aspect of her future soldier qualities; her psychological reflexes and her quick thinking when a guard will shortly be asking for papers: if they ask her and the character she's with, they will be caught but she evades the situation. This incidence oddly enough leads her onto the chance encounter with Ludwig Müntze (Koch), who will the focus of the love story and will challenge her allegiances.
I think what I liked about Black Book despite all the character building; mise-en-scene; sub-genre elements was the way the deaths were presented: there were no glorious deaths; there were no needless killings and whenever certain deaths occur, they just seem to play out in a brutal and coldhearted manner; that is to say you expect someone to come along and rescue them or you expect them to be able to get out of it somehow but the scenes are carried on in a brutal, almost obligatory, manner that hits home. Black Book is a teasing and temping film  it recognises men's weakness for women as well as identifying ego and utilising it for its narrative drive. Since there are not many female secret agents in film and things like the Tomb Raider films are too lacking in subject matter to endorse this sort of ;'expoinage' idea, Black Book is a welcome change to the usual 'kiss, kiss, bang, bang' of a male action hero. This is more 'kiss, kiss, plant, report, kiss, kiss, escape, epiphany.'
Black Book teases because it has the protagonist's goal planted right under their nose. Ellis frequently sees the captives being pulled around and hit down in the cellars; she looks at one of them through a window as she reels off information sheets. We, the audience, even take a break from Ellis' undercover life to witness some Nazi torture the Dutch resistance had to face. And so I am reminded of a male action hero; if a male action hero was that close; was that far into the enemy's lair  the film would be ten minutes away from ending and you can bet anything the body count will have reached large levels by then. But Black Book changes tack to a degree when elements of rescue come into play; romance when the backdrop for the film comes to an end and like most films about war, tragedy will commonly prevail.
The vast Nazi headquarters makes for an excellent setting; inducing dungeons for uneasy scenes of torture, offices for the nitty-gritty dialogue and espionage planting, bedrooms for the activities enforcing elements of trust that become too intense for the character's ideas of love and bathrooms: a space that is purgatory; a space within the space of the HQ that Ellis can visit away from the prying male Germans to either relieve herself from seeing the murderer of loved ones or to get her self out of trouble (best illustrated in the scene when she needs to wash her foot)  it is no coincidence Ellis admits certain things to another character within this room. Whilst gripping and intriguing in its idea, Black Book morphs into a tragedy; a romance; a dark tail evolving around a Macguffin that is the result of treachery  a war film to savour.