Saturday, April 16, 2016

Black Book

Double crossed by Nazi sympathizers and taken in by the resistance, a Jewish lounge singer (Carice van Houten) is passed off as Aryan and sent to infiltrate the Dutch SS headquarters to seduce the charming commandant (Sebastian Koch). Paul Verhoeven's Black Book is overplotted and overlong, poorly acted, and with putrid dialogue. The film is not without entertainment value however and moves at breakneck speed, with inventive albeit ludicrous sequences that resemble Raiders of the Lost Ark in a way. Still, there's something off putting about this light handling of the subject matter.
** 1/2 out of ****