Ben Hibburd ☘🏀’s review published on Letterboxd:
Paul Verhoeven once again proves he's the master of juxtaposing the primordial forces of sex and violence, and how they're not too dissimilar in their uses as tools for exploitation. Verhoeven, never one for pulling his punches tells a story of a Jewish woman joining the Dutch resistance during the late stage of WWII. After watching her family get betrayed she soon finds herself working for one of the men who orchestrated the event. She has to use her wits and sexuality to get close to a high ranking captain in order to feed information back to the resistance.
"Black Book" is a film about betrayal and loyalty, in fact it's one of the best espionage films I've seen in recent times. As characters are either not who, or what, they appear to be, whilst at the same time enemies might not be so adversarial as they first appear. The film gets a little too clever for its own good towards the end with its twists but it's still an effortlessly entertaining ride. The two plus hour run time whisks by in an instant.
Obviously, the film looks incredible and the period setting is almost faultless. This is Paul Verhoeven after all. He has such a keen eye not just for the cinematic language but human connection as-well. With Verhoeven there's no such thing as subtlety, he tells it as it is whether it bothers you or not. This film doesn't shy away from rolling up its sleeves and delving head first into the murky moral waters of espionage.
Carice Van Houten is simply brilliant in this film and she binds it together with a sensual, tough, and gut wrenching performance that should've made her a star long before "Game of Thrones" ever did.
It was also refreshing to see a different side of WWII being showcased on film. A film basically centred around French/Dutch/Belgium resistance groups is as rare as the Dodo. It's a shame because these are valiant stories of ordinary people standing up for what's right and they're largely forgotten about. This is easily one of Paul Verhoeven's best films and I'm glad that I finally got around to watching it!