Black Book

Director Paul Verhoeven, the man behind such classics as Showgirls and Starship Troopers, tells a WWII story—Verhoeven style. A Dutch Jewish woman (Carice van Houten) goes undercover after her family is ambushed and killed during a supposed guaranteed escape from Nazi persecution. She joins up with a resistance group looking to overthrow the Nazis and subsequently falls in love with an S.S. officer (Sebastian Koch). This is a Verhoeven film, which means there are many naked breasts and lots of excessive violence. The director even finds an excuse to dump a vat of shit on his topless heroine. It’s got some decent sequences, but it goes on too long, with many false endings. I was pretty much riding on the fence with this one, until the big shit-dumping scene. That’s where the director lost me.