Highly Entertaining!!

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2007)

Holland 1944. The Second World War is in it's final years and Rachel Stein (Carice Van Houten), once a famed Hollywood Jewish songstress, now finds herself hiding in Holland from the Gestapo. After a gruesome massacre of her family and friends, she endeavours on a route as a resistance fighter and spy for the Dutch, eventually falling in love with head Gestapo of the time, Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch). This affair brings out frightening truths within the German and Dutch camps that Stein and Muntze must now face.
Paul Verhoeven's first film back home in Holland after 20 years in America, sees him making a film that many have considered 'a return to important film making'. After all, this is the same director that brought you Basic Instinct, Robocop and Starship Troopers. Taking into account the topics that are introduced (I mean come on, a Jewish girl falling in love with the head honcho Gestapo of Holland ouch!) he always maintains it as 'exciting entertainment' and that's the brilliant thing; this film could have easily been bogged down in political correctness and the pretentious fabeling of a romanticised war period. Instead Verhoeven delivers a fast paced war thriller that never runs out of steam in its two and half hour trip.
All the actors are fantastic but Carice Van Houten is scorchingly brilliant as Stein. She brings an honest, sexy and tragic portrayal that should see her in many more non-Dutch films in the future. The production values are all top notch (especially for a Dutch film) and it's refreshing to see a war period piece which isn't aligning itself with modern day hyperactive editing that has become common place.
I would have liked to see more of the relationship between Stein and Mutze but this really is only a minor flaw in an otherwise great entertainer. All in all, if you're after an important, stroke your goatee in ever consuming thought kind of movie, this isn't for you. If you want complete escapism from a war movie WHILST munching on those crisps, then give this a whirl!