If you were the director responsible for such garbage as "Hollow Man" and the notoriously bad "Showgirls," wouldn't you want to quit filmmaking? In the case of Paul Verhoeven, he dropped off the map for almost six years after a bad run in Hollywood, although he did produce cult hits such as "Robocop" and "Starship Troopers" during that time. Apparently, all Verhoeven needed was to return to his Dutch roots, which he has rediscovered with "Black Book."
On the run from the Nazis, Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) joins up with the Dutch Resistance during the final year of World War II to deal a massive blow to the Third Reich by infiltrating one of their command centers. Under the alias Ellis de Vries, she finds her way into the upper echelons of the Nazi chain of command by romancing Commander Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch, "The Lives of Others"), charming him with her ravishing good looks and cabaret voice to gain a position as a secretary and thus begin the information leak.
"Black Book" is a thriller, and a great one at that. Verhoeven manages to combine his artistic, pre-Hollywood experience ("Agent of Orange") with the tricks he learned in America to create a dramatic and suspenseful story filled with action-packed set pieces. But despite all the bullets flying and double-crossing twists, the true highlight of the film is van Houten, who has mostly done no-name pictures and TV work in the past. In fact, many are considering "Black Book" her major debut. She is a wonderful actress who shows phenomenal range with good looks to boot, which Verhoeven, known for his work's trademarked sexuality, utilizes without coming off as sleazy.
While it is a bit on the hefty side (145 minutes), "Black Book" is an entertaining flick which captures Verhoeven on his road to directorial recovery and the bright, beautiful van Houten on her way to bigger career opportunities.
