Black Book

Not familiar with the depths to which Paul Verhoeven sunk in Hollywood (though I may get around to Basic Instinct and Showgirls one of these days), I was glad to see him return to Holland to make a quasi-Hollywood war picture. I surveyed his early work for a Dutch film series I did at the Clark, and this is another stab at the subject of Soldier of Orange, The Hague’s resistance to Nazi occupation. Verhoeven is trashy enough to keep the pot boiling, but on home ground his work has added layers. This film is long and twisty, an effectively engaging thriller, but it lives in the central performance of Carice van Houten, a cannon shot into international stardom. She plays a young Jewish woman who had been a cabaret singer in Germany, forced into hiding back in her native Netherlands, but then finds herself involved with both the Resistance and the Nazis, with the perception of good guys and bad guys continually shifting. She runs through many personae -- fugitive on the run, plucky conspirator, sultry Mata Hari, Kibbutz teacher -- and holds the whole thing together with her face, body, and personality. It wouldn’t do to look too deep into these proceedings, but they do keep moving. (2007, dvd, n.) *7-* (MC-71.)