Black Book
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Year Released: 2006
Rating: 3.0
Tongue-in-cheek WWII movie - Verhoeven shows he's aware of the clichés of the genre (like he did with Starship Troopers) - that has a Jewish woman (Carice van Houten, no relation to either Milhouse or Milhouse's Dad) working for both the Gestapo and the Dutch Resistance and getting in trouble with both. Van Houten's character's moral ambiguity is the best part of this - technically, in being on 'both sides' she's on neither (revenge is a dangerous motivating force) - but Verhoeven never lets you forget he's a part of this by sneaking in some tasteless asides (a shit bath, Van Houten painting her pubes and the pistol-erection being three of the most memorable). The biggest screw-up, then, has to do with the plotting during the last forty minutes of the film, which makes this even more of a jumble than before - it's the time when everyone really starts talking about this 'black book' (which looks like a Moleskine, actually) that's on the marquee.
