Slick but unexceptional

Rating: 6/10 (10 August 2008)

I am no Paul Verhoeven fan, but I notice he is one of those rare directors liked both by the lowbrow and the highbrow critic; the former enjoys his penchant for nudity and violence, the latter appreciates the self-consciously campy, "wink-wink" quality of his movies.
Zwartboek is compelling. Pacing is tight and Carice van Houten gives a powerful performance in the main role. The rest of the cast is solid, but van Houten owns the movie with her nuanced portrayal.
But Verhoeven, known for being daring, chickened out. Rachel, a young Jewish woman whose family was murdered by Nazis, joins the Dutch resistance and becomes a Mata Hari-like spy. However, Muntze (Sebastian Koch), the German officer she sleeps with to gather informations, happens to be a decent, charming fellow who refuses to kill POWs and civilians and yearns for peace and love - so much, in fact, that she falls in love with him. Two days after meeting Rachel, Muntze finds out she is a spy and, unbelievably, it doesn't bother him. Instead of having her arrested and executed, they have an earnest chat and continue their relationship. Wait, what?
The problem is, making him so squeaky-clean robs the movie of any sense of moral conflict on Rachel's side. The character of Muntze should have had more of an edge.
Likewise, Rachel's duties as she pretends to work with the Nazis are quite anodyne and neutral - she has to copy reports and decorate rooms with Nazi flags. You never get from this cooperation the feeling of dreadful moral compromise which would have given the heroine more depth and self-loathing.
Given the premise, Zwartboek is surprisingly tame. Sure, van Houten spends so much time bare-breasted that she probably caught a cold but, for a war movie about a Mata Hari kind of spy, the result is almost bland and pulls too many punches - with some exceptions, like a painful scene of humiliation ending with a shower of manure.
Zwartboek lacks subtlety in terms of characterization: not a surprise if you know Verhoeven. There isn't any depth to these people; yes, we get the final twist, but it isn't as earth-shattering as Verhoeven seems to believe: not all German officers were monsters and not all resistance members were saints. Duh. Hardly a revelation.
This is competent film-making with good performances, nothing more.
6,5/10