Black Book

Rating: 6/10 (13 July 2009)

From director Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct), after a lot of success in Hollywood, this was a good return to his foreign language films. Set in World War II, ex-singer Rachel Stein (Carice Van Houten) joins a resistance smuggling many Jewish people across the South Netherlands. One night during one of these boat travels, a German Nazi boat fired at them and murdered all bu Rachel, but she is rescued by another resistance led by Gerben Kuipers (Derek De Lint). After his son is kidnapped, trying to smuggle weapons, he asks Rachel to pose as a German singer named Ellis De Vries, to seduce SS-official Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch) to gain access to all areas. She manages to get Müntze to trust her and she joins his office as a spy, but someone in the resistance betrays her, and she is seen as the bad girl. Also starring Thom Hoffman as Hans Akkermans, Halina Reijn as Ronnie, Waldemar Kobus as Günther Franken, Christian Berkel as General Käutner, Dolf De Vries as Notary Wim Smaal, Peter Blok as Van Gein, Michiel Huisman as Rob and Diana Dobbelman as Mrs. Smaal. Filled with good performances, explosions, violence and even some English, this is pretty engaging war thriller. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film not in the English Language. Good!