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Black Book

World War II movies, as violent and uncompromising as they often are, typically remain within the realm of good taste. It also helps to paint things in fairly broad strokes and keep the moral divisions clearly marked – that Nazis are bad and everyone else is good almost goes without saying. That’s where Black Book, the latest big-budget spectacle from controversial filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, diverges from the pack: just about everyone is hideously evil to some degree, and respectful reverence is substituted for pulpy, melodramatic thrills.

Jewish singer Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) briefly reunites with her upper middle-class family before they are all subsequently gunned down on a refugee boat headed out of Holland. She survives and becomes determined to find and punish those responsible, and the first step is joining the Dutch resistance’s cranky cadre of freedom fighters. With her good looks and charm, Rachel is able to infiltrate the Dutch SS by seducing one of its highest-ranking officers, Muntze (Sebastian Koch of Germany’s recent Foreign Film Oscar-winner, The Lives of Others). As she digs deeper and helps prepare a massive rescue operation for those Dutch fighters being detained and tortured, she begins to discover who all was involved in her family’s demise.

But that’s not all Verhoeven has in store for us. For a time, Black Book feels like a shamelessly entertaining knockoff Nazi spy/rescue ops adventure, but Verhoeven has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. The film is fun, engaging, and swiftly paced, but it seems to be leading to a fairly predictable conclusion, which might make you wonder what all the fuss was about to begin with. Around halfway through, the twists start to fly hard and fast, and it’s clear this is no mere World War II potboiler with standard-issue thrills in mind. It revels in throwing audiences for a loop and, in the process of building up and then subverting our expectations, makes us think.

It should be no surprise that a film by Verhoeven is dramatically lurid, outrageous, and at times outright shocking. After all, this is the man who gave us movies as crazy as Total Recall and as notoriously ridiculous as Showgirls – he’s willing to go just about anywhere cinematically, and his occasionally reckless bad taste serves him well here. The solid production values and fine performances by the cast, especially by the promising van Houten and the compelling Koch, help elevate the film even when Verhoeven’s infamous envelope-pushing sensibilities become apparent. But for the most part, even the coarsest scenes serve to amplify the rampant moral ambiguity that drives the film.

Feeling like a comic book interpretation of history and paced like a freight train, Black Book takes no prisoners and rounds some nasty, unpredictable corners. So if you’re looking for a safe, classical World War II story of love and adventure, steer clear. But if you want an evening of challenging, brisk entertainment, this one’s worth seeking out on a big screen somewhere.

Written by: Joe Pudas

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