Very entertaining film from Verhoeven

Rating: 8/10 (19 June 2007)

Director Paul Verhoeven returns to his native Holland after more than 20 years (his last film there was 1983's The Fourth Man) and the result is a cinematic treat, probably his best film since Robocop. Both outrageous and exhilarating, Black Book tells the story of a Jewish singer (the excellent Carice Van Houten) and her improbable travails in occupied Holland during World War II. After spending a great part of the occupation hidden by some anti-Semitic farmers, her hiding place is bombed by the British towards the end of the war. She decides it's time to reunite with her family and escape with the help of some dubious people to allied-liberated Belgium. But there is an obvious betrayal during the escape and her whole family (along with other refugees) are killed by the Germans (she escapes miraculously by jumping into the water,007-style). After that, she joins the resistance, and a series of improbable situations occurs. When the son of one of the resistance leader is arrested, she is encouraged to seduce the German SS bigwig (whom she had met earlier on a train) so as to install a microphone inside the Nazi headquarters and help the resistance liberate the young man (the idea of a Jew becoming a lover of a high Nazi officer is, of course, highly offensive to many; the Nazi, by the way, is played by the fine actor who was the playwright in The Lives of Others). Many improbable things happen after wards, with incredible turns of events to the story happening at about every ten minutes, punctuated by deadly shootings between the Nazis and the Dutch resistance. The movie is 2hours and 25 minutes long, probably half an hour too much (it should have ended when Holland is liberated and she receives a less than stellar reception). It's impossible to take the movie very seriously (the movie claims to be based in true events, but this is almost certainly not true), but is extremely entertaining, and it shows Verhoeven at the top of his game.