Black Book (Zwartboeck)

WWII thrillers aren’t necessarily rare, but Black Book certainly is one of a kind. This film, the most expensive Dutch film ever made, is full of spies--double and even triple agents--and twists and turns. It is based on true events, all put together for one exciting movie. Coming in at 2 hours and 25 minutes, Paul Verhoeven’s latest could have stood to have been about 10 or 15 minutes shorter, but beyond that, this is a suspenseful movie with action, sex, and intrigue.

Carice van Houten (no relation to Milhouse) plays Rachel Stein, a Jewish woman and former cabaret singer hiding from the Nazis in a country farm outside of The Hague. The time is September 1944; Operation Market Garden is coming to a close and was successful in liberating only the southern part of Holland. Rachel is content to wait for the Allies to get there and to be liberated. However, when her hiding place is destroyed she must decide to try and escape to the south or to find another hiding place. After some unexpected events, she ends up in the bed of the local Gestapo commander in order to glean secrets from him to help the Resistance.

This is a world where not all Gestapo are evil, and where even the evil ones sing, play the piano, and laugh, just as we all do. Likewise, not all Resistance fighters are saints, with some even being anti-Semitic. In America we tend to think of the campaign to liberate Europe and the campaign to end the Holocaust as very closely related, if not the same thing. But we mustn’t forget that in 1944 the campaigns were separated, particularly to those partisans trying to liberate their homelands. Yet, because it offends our modern sensibilities, we see that no one is perfect. We are humans. We all have mixed emotions and mixed motives.

Overall, this is a thrilling, suspenseful, and at times an offbeat film. But I think that what I like most of all, is the authenticity of it. Verhoeven comes from a school of filmmaking that eschews CGI when possible. When a scene calls for airplanes to be flying in the sky he shoots a real B-17 bomber. When he shoots the liberation scenes he uses close to 1200 extras to line the streets, all wearing orange (the color of the Holland’s ruling family, the House of Orange). Women really get their heads shaved to imitate the punishment given to women who slept with or worked for the Germans. Additionally, van Houten sung the songs that her character sings, giving the film even added authenticity.

Also check out Sebastian Koch as the Gestapo officer. Last year he played a dissident in a totalitarian state in The Lives of Others, but in this film he plays the agent of a totalitarian state. If you are, like me, tired of the latest American clichéd and meaningless action flick, then you should definitely check this movie out. It has action, suspense, and best of all, meaning.

Final Rating: 8/10

Away From Her

The only thing we can say about Sarah Polley’s screenwriting and directorial debut is: wow! Basing her script on the short story “The Bear Came over the Mountain” by Alice Munro, Polley had created a masterpiece.

Julie Christie plays Fiona, a woman suffering from the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. She and her husband, Grant (Gordon Pinsent), have not been apart from each other for nearly four and a half decades, so understandably he takes it quite hard when she decides it would be best for her to enter into a nursing hope for people suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Over the course of time, Grant becomes somewhat alarmed, and even a little jealous, over the strength of friendship that she develops with a fellow patient named Aubrey. As can be expected, Grant has to struggle to come to terms with this new relationship and with Fiona’s fading memory.

Although Julie Christie has been widely recognized for her performance (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, winner of the BAFTA, Golden Globe, and National Board of Review, Screen Actors Guild for the same, as well as numerous film critics societies), and not to take anything away from that, the story is driven by Gordon Pinsent’s performance (he won the award for Outstanding Male Performance from the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists…they’re version of the SAG Awards). Also of note is Olympia Dukakis playing Marian, Aubrey’s wife, as she also needs to adjust to life with her husband, whom she has brought home from the nursing home. And speaking of her husband, Michael Murphy plays a daring role, not speaking a word as Aubrey. It is a real shame that there is no Oscar category for ensemble cast.

Somewhat reminiscent of the closing scenes of The Notebook, this film is much deeper, much more emotional. It shows the true effects that any debilitating disease can have on a family. This touching story is truly one of the best of the year, and features not only one of the best casts of the year, but perhaps the best directorial debut of an actor that I have seen.

Final Rating: 9/10