Directors degradation

Rating: 2/10 (25 August 2007)

The Lives of Others, The Downfall and The Pianist are quite exceptionally powerful yet subtle movies and then 'Black Book'comes along to undermine all prior intelligent thought.
This is a movie full of holes.
Was the directors usual proclivity for gratuitous violence, general humiliation and sad sex for all involved; hidden within the subject of war or was this subject matter way beyond his capability so he 'lost the plot'?
Whatever ones historical slant, to me, this was a thoroughly disappointing cinematic experience which cannot be packaged by overspending, miscasting, mediocre script and ham-fisted direction.