Tears, tart and titty

Rating: Null/10 (6 December 2009)

The makers of this movie seem to have crafted it in such a fashion as to conjure up as many sub-plots involving sex, violence and double-dealing as could reasonably fit in a 2-hour spell. In so doing they created an extremely fast-paced thriller with more twists in it than a mole's living quarters. Which no doubt will appeal to a certain type of movie-goer.
However as a result the film loses much of its moral authority. Take, for instance, the episode where the house in which Ellis has been hiding is bombed. Almost immediately afterwards we see her singing happily without apparently a care in the world and her only remark regarding those (including half a dozen or so children) who had been sheltering her was to say she was relieved that she no longer had to read boring passages from the Bible to earn her keep. Hmm. In another episode several resistance men are badly beaten and then dragged off by German police but this seems to leave little impression on her. Even after her whole family is murdered she throws herself into the role of tart to the Germans with unlikely enthusiasm.
Though her acting in the role of tart is superb, as a heroine she seems to be distinctly lacking in intelligence. She seems constantly to be out-of-depth. Manipulated by others, she never seems to have a coherent plan of her own, and frequently allows herself to be led into traps. There are the seeds in this story of a great cat-and-mouse thriller if she had been allowed to have a bit more brain and a bit less of the other. This could have taken the movie way above the general Hollywood fare. However the authors seemed to have aimed for the box office. A great pity, given the excellent standard of photography, dialog and acting throughout.
The climax of the movie when she is turning the screws in the coffin is just ludicrous.