Review of Black Book (2006) by Josh G — 25 Aug 2008

Black Book, Paul Verhoeven's first non-English film since 1983, is a very good movie about spies and double-agents during World War II.

Rachel (a.k.a. Ellis) joins a group that is fighting against the Nazis after she witnesses a massacre. In order to save lives, she must pretend to work for the Nazis in order to find out their secrets. But when the Nazis convince this resistance group that she is sincere in her work for them, she becomes the unwitting enemy of both sides of the struggle.

Carice van Houten is great as Ellis. She manages to both give the viewer a sense of the struggles and hardships that she's had to endure and remain strangely detached at once. The action is quick and light, at times reminiscent of a James Bond-type film, with many unexpected turns. At the halway point of the movie, my friend and I both thought that the movie was certainly about to come to its conclusion, but we were shocked by the twist that let the story continue onward.

It was somewhat difficult to really get into the movie, perhaps because of the sheer number of turns. When Black Book was over, I wasn't entirely sure what had happened exactly or why.

Verhoeven is known for violence in his films, and this is no exception. Still, what violence there was felt a little bit too comical for the subject matter. The drama was evident, but the fear of death and/or injury that Ellis and her compatriots must have suffered was not as easily shown.

Speaking of comical, there were certain stylistic touches that I wondered about. It felt like Verhoeven had forgotten that he was not filming Starship Troopers this time. At one point, one of the characters says something along the lines of, "We'll get that girl. We'll hunt her down and kill her." Meanwhile, the camera is zooming in dramatically. It just felt too... I don't know, too exaggerated for this movie.

Black Book does do a remarkable job of exhibiting the moral ambiguity that Verhoeven likes to focus on in his work, although the character of Ellis seems rather clear-cut, and the movie does not function as satire the way that a lot of his recent work has. I appreciate that Verhoeven is trying to do something slightly different to coincide with his vacation(?) from the U.S., but I have to wonder whether he's kind of gotten into a certain sort of groove that he hasn't entirely abandoned.

Black Book is a really good movie, don't get me wrong, and there are several scenes that have stuck in my head because of their shock value or beauty. There are just too many things that seem (for lack of a better word) exaggerated in a way that doesn't mesh with the tone that has been set. The larger-than-life shoot-outs, the sharp rise in the music when an important action is taking place.

This movie would have been better if it had been shorter and slightly more subdued. If that makes sense. What begins as a small story about a Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis ends as an elaborate and grandiose web of plot twists. It's good, and there are certainly things throughout the film that I am fond of, but I do think that it could have been ironed out a little more.

EDIT: I've been reading reviews of Black Book and am now questioning the four stars that I gave the film. I mean, after all, it does play fast and loose with history. It even -- SPOILERS -- places a Nazi in the role of "good guy" and doesn't take the time to remind the heroine that this man sent hundreds, if not thousands, of people to their death over the past four years. And how is it that they're so in love when he threatens to kill her thrice? So maybe it deserves a lower rating.

But on the other hand, I am a huge Verhoeven fan, and Black Book contains all of his signature elements: the more I think about it, the more I realize that Rachel is not as straight an arrow as I had thought, considering that she was willing to -- SPOILER -- sell out her friends for the love of a good Nazi. So all of the characters are morally ambiguous, which is a major theme in Verhoeven's films. The action is laughable at times, but maybe that's part of the idea: to juxtapose this small drama with overblown action, just to keep the audience on its toes. So maybe the movie deservers a higher rating?

I have no plans to change the rating. I just wanted to mention these things, and this seemed like the place to do it.