a Dutch Hello Hello?

Rating: 2/10 (29 June 2007)

I defy anyone not to like the Dutch. Apart from their astounding ability to speak several languages straight from birth and make some odd guttural noises that no-one else in Europe can do; they are engaging and open and a very tolerant people. Besides which I went to see Zwartboek directed by Paul Verhoeven after being in Holland for a fortnight. So, a film set in the wartime Netherlands directed by a successful Dutchman, one would like to be gem. I just found it despairingly trite.
Let's start with the positives. The background music? It underlines every mood with crescendos and cadences to exaggerate the mood if we haven't understood it from the story but was way too prominent. Maybe the photography that had crisp colours and showed some of the wonderful Dutch buildings and orderly landscapes? But it had none of the lighting contrasts of the Dutch painting masters. Well, maybe the acting then? For sure, the lead actress, Carice van Houten, who plays the heroine throughout the film is very easy to watch and , as you can see from the picture clips supplied to IDMB has a natty way of looking over her shoulder (in all 8 of the supplied pictures of her she stands looking over one shoulder or the other). I thought she and all the actors did a fine job, but....
About 2 hours into the film van Houten's character, by then having changed her name from the too Jewish Rachel Stein to the Dutch resistance nom de Guerre of Ellis de Vries, says "When will it end?" I had been thinking the same thing for about 90 minutes. In England ITV have programmes that are advertised as "a stunning new DRAMA". They are well made, well filmed, set in caricatured locations, full of well known actors who make their mark by bursting with "drama" meaning they always have some turmoil with a close up shot. This film struck me as a good ITV drama. Just right for a Tuesday night at 9.00pm.
My immediate reaction to the film was that it managed to equally offend everyone. Would Jewish people want to be portrayed as money and diamond grabbing; with the Rachel Stein character having to be noticed all the time even when trying to slip past the Gestapo? Do the Germans still want to be seen as sadistic power crazed peoples? Are we Brits ineffective wishy washy nice chaps ( well OK probably). Were the Dutch so bound up with their religious fervour? All much too caricatured for me.
I think the main disappointment for me is that one has no deeper understanding of people or their motives from this film. There is no exploration of character. The SS Officer Ludwig Müntze excellently played by Sebastian Koch collects stamps; so another German with obsessional characteristics. Stereotyping again; and he is the most developed character. And van Houten's Rachel Stein had to be noticed all the time; it drove me potty her showing her legs off at Germans whilst apparently trying to sneak through their lines; putting on candles in a transparent tent whilst again hiding; all the time that woman drew attention to herself.
Probably the biggest flaw really was the script; superficial and silly. I'm so glad my mother never saw this film; I think it's an insult to anyone in their 80s.