Notes from the Netherlands

Paul Verhoeven’s “Zwartboek” (“Black Book”) is an engrossing World War II spy drama as Carice van Houten’s Jewess Rachel Stein becomes, in an attempt to survive the Nazi onslaught, the Dutch Ellis de Vries. As De Vries, she must spy for the Dutch Resistance on the local German officers, one of whom is Muntze (Sebastian Koch). “Zwartboek” turned out to be more old fashioned than I’d expected; a rather typical, well told story of wartime intrigue consisting mainly of betrayal and death. The key difference between this film and many others of its kind is its female protagonist, a woman who makes important choices and is fundamental in keeping some characters alive.

“Zwartboek” is Verhoeven's most skilful and effective thriller since his work in the early 1990s, by which I mean “Total Recall”, not “Basic Instinct”. After those films came “Showgirls” (not as bad as is generally suggested, but pretty bad nonetheless), “Starship Troopers” (a comically subversive sex ‘n’ space military soap opera) and the malicious “Hollow Man”. “Zwartboek” appears a full six years after that misfire, taking Verhoeven back to his home country, away from American studio interference.

Still, even away from American executives pounding on your door, a budget of 16 million Euros is nothing to sniff at, so Verhoeven plays it safe. The good guys are clearly good; the bad guys are often plain rotten, though they sometimes switch sides. The story (opening with that most awful of opening titles, “Inspired by True Events”) is played for entertainment. Stylistically and thematically, this is the opposite of “Der Untergang” (“Downfall”), and Verhoeven’s sure hand makes 140 minutes pass by without much lurching, even managing to work in three or four topless scenes (a Verhoeven film would not be a Verhoeven film without the obligatory, sometimes gratuitous nude scenes).