Zwartboek (aka Black Book) (2006)

The films begins in 1956 Israel with a chance encounter between two women who knew each other during WWII and then film flashes back to the waning years of WWII in the Netherlands. A young Jewish woman (Carice Van Houten) fleeing Nazi occupied Holland with her family and other Jews are caught by the German SS and massacred, she being the only survivor. She joins the resistance and is given the assignment to seduce a high ranking Nazi officer and procure information but evidence points toward a traitorous mole in the resistance movement who may be more deadly than her Nazi conquest. Director Paul Verhoeven's Hollywood stay produced decidedly mixed results. There were some good films like BASIC INSTINCT and TOTAL RECALL but there were jaw dropping stinkers like STARSHIP TROOPERS and the notorious SHOWGIRLS, too. With BLACK BOOK, he returns to his pre-Hollywood glory days of SOLDIER OF ORANGE and THE FOURTH MAN. This is a terrific WWII espionage thriller with an excellent central performance by Van Houten. Verhoeven veers off into dubious and sensationalistic areas (no one ever accused him of good taste) but for the most part, he sublimates his tendency to go for the groin and gives us a strong and moving elegy on bravery and the endurance of the human spirit. The score is by Anne Dudley. With Sebastian Koch (whose good performance here makes up for his awful work in LIVES OF OTHERS), Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn and Waldemar Kobus.