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Black Book (2006)
The story opens in
Israel, October 1956 with Rachel Stein(Carice Van Houton, Amnesia)
teaching at her school when a tourist appears in the window of her
class room. As the woman takes a photograph, Rachel tells her that she
is disrupting her class. Just as Rachel lowers the blinds, the woman
notices her, it was her friend from the war, Ronnie. They chat briefly
before Ronnie’s tour group leaves and she tells her that she moved to
Israel after the war. As Ronnie left, Rachel remembers back to the war
12 ears earlier.
Holland, September 1944, Rachel is hiding out with a Christian family on their farm. An American bomber plain that has been hit is trying to lighten its load by getting ride of its bombs when one falls of the farm house Rachel was staying in. Rachel is rescued by a local boy, Rob sailing on the lake. Rob takes her to his place where they stay the night in his families greenhouse. That night a man named Mr. Van Gein shows up claiming that he is part of the Dutch Resistance and that the Germans are looking for Rachel and Rob. He tells them that he could get them to a liberated part of the Netherlands tomorrow and that they had to pack light and bring enough money to last them a year.
The next day, Rachel goes to visit a friend of her fathers that will help her with money to live on. He is WB Smaal Attorney at Law. Mr. Smaal keeps a black book with that contains all the names of traitors. After leaving his Law office, Rachel and Rob meet up with Van Gein to get out of town. Once arriving at the boat dock, Rachel sees her brother and parents. The boat ride was going well until it was ambushed by the Germans. Everyone on the boat was riddle with bullets but Rachel. She was able to swim into the cover of the marsh and watch the soldiers steal the money and the jewelry of the dead. Rachel was rescued from the marsh by a man who then turned her over to the Dutch Resistance. She was smuggled out of Holland in a casket and brought to the Resistance HQ where she died her hair and got a new identity and a job. Her new name is Ellis de Vries.
After the first five months as a cook for the Resistance, her boss Gerben Kuipers offers her a better but more dangerous job. She will now be an official member of the Resistance and help them take down the Germans. Her mission is to accompany the guys to a field where they are to pick up a secret drop of food, supplies, weapons, and a radio. The drop goes great but when they are unpacking everything, the Germans crash the door and attempt to arrest them. The resistance members fight back, killing all five of the Germans and taking their uniforms to use later.
Back at the soup kitchen, the resistance is plotting their move when Tim Kuipers and others crash the delivery truck exposing their weapon stash and attracting the attention of the gestapo. Trying to flee, Tim and the others were arrested for weapons possession . In order to get Tim and the others out of trouble, the resistance needs somebody on the inside. This was Ellis’s (Rachel) time to shine. She was to show interest in German Officer Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Hoch) and obtain any information she could.. Taking the bait, Muntze offers her a job as a secretary. One day while being intimate, Muntze discovers her dark roots coming in and confronts her about it. Fearing the worst, Ellis tells the truth and he keeps it a secret.
Now deep undercover, Ellis is to plant a secret microphone in the office of Gunther Franken. The microphone will allow the resistance to hear everything that is said or done in his office. While listening to the transmission, Ellis finds out that Van Gein is working with Gunther and is responsible for the massacre of her family and all the Jews on the boat. The enrages Ellis and the good doctor Hans, they are going to make him pay. Ellis tells Muntze that Franken is stealing money and jewels off of the dead Jews. Muntze informs his General and they both confront him about it . When his safe reveals no stolen money or jewels, Franken in turn tells the General that Muntze is making agreements on his own with WB Smaal the Attorney to not kill prisoners. Muntze is arrested and sentenced to appear in front of the firing squad.
Back at the resistance hideout, the men are preparing a rescue attempt using the German uniforms they confiscated. The plan is to enter the HQ in a truck loaded with prisoners and then break Tim and the others out. Ellis unlocks a basement window for the guys to enter through before going to a party upstairs. The raid fails big time. The Germans were waiting in the cells for the resistance to come, and when they did they were all killed except for Hans. Ellis was locked up for conspiracy and sentenced to be executed with Muntze. Later that night, Ronnie plans an escape for Muntze and Ellis. They hide in a covered sailboat on the lake. Not long after that they hear on the radio that the war was over and that Germany surrendered.
Ellis and Muntze are taken into custody by locals and members of the resistance. Muntze gets arrested because he was an SS officer and Ellis is arrested and accused of tipping off the Germans about the rescue attempt. Muntze is executed by his own people and Ellis is degraded and held prisoner for being a traitor. Ellis is being physically assaulted when Doctor Hans Akkermans, now a Dutch soldier, rescues her. Hans was part of the Dutch Resistance with her. He takes her back to his office where he proceeds to inject her with a lethal dose of insulin because he finds out that she was really in love with Muntze. Ellis manages to eat some chocolate to neutralize the effect of the insulin and escape. She goes to see Gerben Kuipers to prove her innocents. She tells him about Hans working with the Nazi’s and how he tried to kill her. She gives Gerben the black book that belonged to Mr Smaal. The two of them must find Hans and stop him from disappearing with the loot belonging to the dead Jews.
Director Paul Verhoeven ( Basic Instinct, Robocop, Hollow man, Total Recall) has managed to travel back to the 1940's and take us into the life a Jewish woman who not only loses everything but manages to stay alive by risking her own life as a mole for the Dutch Resistance. Black Book is entertaining from beginning to end. Carice Van Houten is absolutely phenomenal.
Rating - ****
- Jim Cain
