It's a bold and different take on the war movie genre .
Disadvantages:
Gratuitous sex and a lack of depth .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Rachel Stein is a Jewish singer hiding in the Netherlands during the final year of World War Two. When she and her family try to cross the border to freedom, her party is betrayed and everyone but her is massacred. So she joins the Dutch resistance, where she is persuaded to infiltrate the German Security Service. To do so she must seduce a high-ranking officer called Müntze, with whom she falls in love. But further betrayals ensue, meaning that she has to go on the run from the resistance as well as the Nazis. She and Müntze go into hiding to try and survive the final days of the war.
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven has always followed his own path, trying to make the erotic thriller popular in Hollywood and making "Starship Troopers", which wanted to be a warning against fascism but confused audiences with a cast of photogenic soap stars. Needless to say his Dutch-language output has been more consistent and far better received, as is the case with this glossy but engrossing production. He still manages to put his own stamp on this variation of the war film. Unlike most of the recent slew of war dramas, which have favoured a muted and sometimes bleached-out visual style, his movie is shot on high definition film in glorious Technicolor. So in many ways it feels more immediate. On the other hand the saturated colours make it feel as though it exists in a heightened reality. As does the way the Nazi officers and their friends party in their opulent quarters while prisoners are tortured in the cells below. So the imagery is sometimes too simplistic. The way he shoots the action, from Nazi attacks to assassinations adds to the sense of unreality.
It feels like a throwback to earlier war films, brimming with beautiful femmes fatales and manly men willing to die for their country. The majority of Nazis are faceless killers and drones without feelings. There are plenty of cloak-and-dagger shenanigans performed by shadowy figures in hats and a whole cycle of crosses and double-crosses. There's always a sense that everything is very exciting and that war is something of a Boy's Own Adventure. But it feels a little odd when you consider Verhoeven was brought up during the German occupation of Holland.
Perhaps the most serious criticism of the movie is that it lacks tension. It opens on Rachel's new life after the war, so you know she survives and this robs her adventures of life-threatening menace. However, although it may be a little predictable in some respects is certainly never dull; there is plenty of incident and feels like there's always another adventure coming along. So the hundred and forty-five minute running time doesn't feel that long. This being a Verhoeven film there is also plenty of gratuitous sex and one scene where the heroine dyes her pubic hair is bound to become notorious. For a non-Hollywood movie, the quality of the special effects is very high - there are a number of big explosions and accomplished action sequences. As with most Verhoeven movies, you get plenty of bang for your buck.
The screenplay by Gerard Soeteman and Verhoeven is certainly not short of action. You get the measure of the movie from the opening moments where the glamorous Rachel escapes a bombing raid and hooks up with a dashing young chap at the drop of a hat. In the blink of an eye she's planning her escape over the border and everything is going to hell in a hand basket, setting her on the road to working with the resistance and her new identity as Ellis de Vries. Then we go through a whole cycle of near-misses and daring escapes, double-crosses and derring-do. The final outcomes are almost moralistic; bad people come to bad ends. Though there is a modicum of depth in the scenes where the Dutch people take reprisals against suspected collaborators.
The characterisation tends to be simplistic throughout - motives are simple; usually financial gain or revenge. Relationships are based on necessity and betrayal is easy to come by. Rachel/Ellis is a gutsy heroine archetype; someone who has lost everything but still gives her all. She falls in love with Müntze too easily for their affair to be truly credible and her ability to escape so many sticky situations is too convenient to ring true. Many of the players are convenient war movie stereotypes, like the self-satisfied Nazi commandant, the plucky resistance fighters and the opportunistic party girl. The dialogue isn't quite as archaic as the boy's own adventure stylings of the film but there is very little here that falls into the deep and meaningful category. The subtitles are very high quality and after a while you forget they're there and almost hear the speech in your own language.
Carice Van Houten, who plays Rachel (aka Ellis De Vries) is a dead ringer for Gwyneth Paltrow when she's blonde. The resemblance is sometimes so strong it's almost eerie watching her speak in Dutch. She definitely has the looks to play a femme fatale and she plays the flirtatious, gutsy heroine well. She has strong chemistry with on-screen lover Sebastian Koch and enough presence to demand your attention.
Sebastian Koch is fast becoming one of my favourite German actors. No matter what the politics of his character may be, there is something immediately warm and reassuring about him. And as Nazi officer Müntze, he is personable and, above all, sympathetic, so you want him to defy the odds and survive. As fellow officer Franken, Waldemar Kobus plays the more stereotypical Nazi; fat, sadistic, slimy and treacherous, without a shred of humanity. So you're immediately gunning for his comeuppance. As good-time girl Ronnie, Halina Reijn fizzes with energy and Thom Hoffman is an intense and mildly unsettling presence as resistance leader Hans.
The original music by Oscar-winning British composer Anne Dudley sticks to tried and tested orchestral arrangements that add a serious touch to the occasionally almost frivolous treatment of the subject matter elsewhere. She's more restrained than Hans Zimmer would be, keeping the music confined to meaningful passages when the emotional content of the movie requires them. So we hear passages of sad clarinet which are joined by building strings as the film opens. She goes for big brass arrangements for the earliest bombing. She underlines tension with foreboding strings and flutes and provides a brassy motif for the Gestapo. One key scene is accompanied by high, rising brass that rightly sets the nerves on edge. This is all accompanied by swing and jazz from the era and the often bizarre Nazi propaganda songs that are as disturbing as they are twee.
"Black Book" is a war movie with old-fashioned sensibilities. It is more concerned with cloak-and-dagger and daring adventures than serious character development or the emotional fallout of war. Despite the high body-count and serious subtext, this is a film that could be considered fun to watch. It is fast-paced, glossy, glamorous and populated by dashing heroes and gutsy girls. The production values are high and it is never dull. If you wish Hollywood still made films like they used to and you can cope with subtitles and a fair amount of sex, this could definitely be worth a punt. Now let's just hope Verhoeven sticks to his home territory and more coherent and substantial filmmaking.
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Soundtrack
Good
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Good
Value for Money
Good
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